Starting Right
Starting Right is a 5 minute Day Starter to help keep you motivated, encouraged, and focused throughout your day. DannyMac is a pastor, teacher, motivational speaker, husband, and father. His years of leading and training people have given him vast experience in helping individuals to accomplish change in their lives and meet their goals. He can help you set the course for your day by offering practical advice from God's Word in a positive and fun way. There is no better way to begin your day than by Starting Right with DannyMac.
Starting Right
Fly The Plane, Not The Lightbulb
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A blinking light isn’t always the real problem. We open with the haunting lesson of Eastern Airlines Flight 401, where a 75-cent bulb stole the crew’s attention and the plane slipped out of safe hands. That same pattern plays out in our calendars and conversations: the urgent blinks, our focus drifts, and the truly important gets crowded out.
From there we pivot to a timeless moment in Luke 10 with Mary and Martha. One chooses presence, the other productivity; both matter, but order matters more. We talk through how “fly the plane” becomes a daily rule: keep control of the essentials before you chase the noise. With simple, real-world habits—naming one primary outcome, guarding a short focus block, using a parking lot list for stray tasks, and practicing a short morning pause for prayer or reflection—we show how to anchor your day in what lasts.
You’ll hear why attention is your most valuable asset, how to handle interruptions without losing momentum, and why presence before performance changes not just your to-do list but your relationships and peace of mind. The goal isn’t to work less; it’s to work with wisdom, strength, and clarity. When we listen first and act from that place, even busy days feel lighter and more directed.
If today’s message helps you refocus on what matters, share it with a friend who needs a steady start. Subscribe for a five-minute boost each weekday, and leave a quick review to help more people start right.
Good morning and welcome to Starting Right with Danny Mack. I'm going to be here every Monday to Friday to help you get a great five-minute start to your day. So grab your cup of coffee, sit back, relax, and let me help you start your day right. On December 29th, 1972, Eastern Airlines Flight 401 departed New York City for Miami. The plane carried 176 people. As they neared the Miami airport for its landing, a light that indicates the proper deployment of the landing gear failed to come on. The plane, under directions from air traffic control, flew in a large looping circle over the swamps of the Everglades while the cockpit crew checked out the light failure. The question they needed an answer for was had the landing gear actually not deployed or was it just the light bulb that was defective? The flight engineer fiddled with the bulb. He tried to remove it, but it wouldn't budge. Another member of the crew became curious and tried to help him out, and then another. By and by, if you can believe it, all eyes were on the little light bulb that refused to be dislodged from its socket. What they didn't realize is that with all the attempts to correct the light bulb problem, somehow the autopilot had been turned off, and the airplane started losing altitude. And finally it flew right into the swamp, killing 101 with 75 survivors. And here's the thing. While an experienced crew of high priced and seasoned pilots messed around with a 75 cent light bulb, an entire plane and many of its passengers were lost. Their crew momentarily forgot the most basic of all the rules of the air, which is don't forget to fly the plane. There are always things that come along and distract us and take our focus off of what we really should be working on. It seems to happen every day. And unfortunately there's not a way to get rid of the distractions. And while we must deal with many of these distractions, we must learn to keep our priorities straight, to recognize what truly is important, and make sure that the important things are always being done. In Luke chapter ten, there's the story of Mary and Martha. Jesus had come to Martha's home for dinner, and her sister Mary had sat at Jesus' feet listening to everything that he had to say. Verse forty tells us that Martha was distracted by the big dinner she was preparing. She came to Jesus and said, Lord, doesn't it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits there while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me. But the Lord said to her, My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details. There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary had discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her. You see, while Martha was busy working and distracted by all the things she had to get ready for the meal, her sister chose to sit and listen to Jesus teach. She recognized that his words were words of life for her. She needed that encouragement, she needed that wisdom, she needed that strength, and she needed to get everything from Jesus that she could so that she could from that day forward live the life that would give her the ability to face everything in her future. The opportunity to sit there and listen to Jesus was far greater than the need to prepare the meal. Martha was not ignoring Jesus. She wasn't trying to set him aside or not pay any attention to him. She was trying to serve Jesus. But this particular time was an opportunity for her to listen to him and to gain from his understanding and his goodness, and to have the serving become something later. It's very easy to get confused with those priorities. We need to take time every day to listen to what he says, to let him pour into us, to give us wisdom and strength that we need. And it's very easy to let the busyness of life take away that time that we should spend with God every day. So I know today all of us are going to come across situations and things that will surprise us and distract us. They'll try to keep us from accomplishing some things that we believe are important. Our goal needs to be that we understand what is truly important, and we make sure that we stay on track to get the important things done. And the most important thing of anything that we have is that we live our lives in a relationship with Jesus. We listen to what he says and we let him guide and help us through every step of the day. He will help to keep you on track, and he will help you to make sure that the most important things say the most important things. Have a great day, my friends, and we will talk again tomorrow. Thank you for joining us today, and I invite you to join us every Monday to Friday, right here at Starting Right with Danny Mack.
