Yesterday I wrote
about the tension between responding correctly to what is important and what is
urgent in life. I thought I would give
you some examples today. Some Biblical
and some straight out of everyday life. Not exhaustive by any means, but hopefully they will get you thinking.
Let’s do the everyday life ones first.
Have you had
this happen to you or perhaps you were the one who did it. You are having a face-to-face conversation
with someone. Their cellphone rings
(phone call) or dings (text alert – Text message – Messenger – Email - Facebook
-Snapchat – Twitter) so they stop talking to you and turn their attention to
their phone. How many phone calls or
texts that you receive everyday are emergencies that must be tended to immediately?
Yeh, that’s what I thought – me too – nada – zip. So why is what comes across your phone so
important that you are willing to be disrespectful to the person you are
talking to in order to check your phone?
As a culture we have decided that any time our phone signals us – it is
important and urgent.
When my phone
goes off I ignore it. If it persists, I
check to see if it is an emergency. And
then, if not – I ignore it – it can wait. I have noticed that when I do not
look – the people with me ask – “Are you going to get that?” When I had an office, I had a rule. Anyone I was talking to was THE most
important person in my work world at that moment – except my boss. If someone interrupted I would ask them to
come back later and continue my conversation.
Just because you have something to say does not mean that the world
needs to stop to hear it.
Or. You believe that the Lord is calling you to
some service that will require you to leave your job, lower your income, put
your retirement in jeopardy, maybe impact your children’s ability to fund
college. You are faced with a
significant step of faith. Others have
confirmed that they believe it’s God – you are convinced – but what is most
important? How does that fit into you
life’s priorities? Do you put those things at risk? Is that irresponsible? Would God really ask
you to do that? Doesn’t He love you and
your family? Would He ask you to lay
those things down for Him? Your hopes and
dreams? How important is it to obey
God’s leading? How important is your
children’s future? Is it possible that there is a greater good? Is it possible to
do both? It is not always a question of choosing one over the other. In fact most Christians are not asked to do
those things. But, we are all asked to
not prefer them over obedience to God – whatever He might ask us to do.
It is not as
simple as putting one of them in the important or unimportant box. They are both important – but which one is
more important? Everyday we are faced
with choices – the good or the best. God
does not often ask us to abandon our job or surrender our income to serve
Him. But He might and has for some. When Jesus asked Peter if Peter loved Jesus
more than “these” (John 21) What
or who were the “these”? It doesn’t
matter. Or shouldn’t. Jesus wanted to
know where Peter’s heart’s devotion was.
Recall Peter had denied Jesus three times before men to protect
himself. Do you love God more
“these”? If you are a Christian, then
the world and the things of the world are not urgent or important compared to
the things of God.
Ok now a Biblical example.
(Luke 9:59-62) “To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said,
“Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” And Jesus said to him, “Leave the
dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of
God.” Yet another said, “I will follow
you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” Jesus said to
him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the
kingdom of God.”
How important
is it for you to attend your father’s funeral?
Pretty important. So how
important is it to obey God in relation to your father’s funeral? There is an urgency about serving God and
walking in obedience to His will. Not to
mention the vitality of its importance. For
these two men, they had divided hearts. God’s
expectation is the we love Him with our whole heart. So what would you do when
your family doesn’t understand why you didn’t care enough to attend the
funeral? Would your family’s not
understanding and perhaps rejection be reason enough to say “no” to God and
“yes” to your family? Maybe that guy was
an only son or child. We are not given
the back-story. The funeral is certainly
not unimportant – but when compared to obeying the Creator God, perhaps the
funeral is less important than he wanted to accept. Tough! By the way, we do not know what either
of the men chose to do. Perhaps like the
rich young ruler, they went away unable to re-prioritize their lives for
God. When you read the verse “Choose
this day whom you will serve.”, what do you think the context of the choice is?
We tend to trivialize the choices we face.
Good versus evil – relatively easy.
Good versus Better versus Best, not so easy. But that is the way it is when faced with
life and following Jesus.
You can thank
me later for stirring this up. People
talk to me often about their struggling with choices between the spiritual and
natural. When I say “Trust God” (Proverbs
3:5-6) I get the look like, “That was not much help!” It is the best I can do. Finding balance between important and not as
important is a faith challenge. Oh, and
faith is an intangible … “the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of
things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1) Your ability to do what you should is
dependent upon the quality of your relationship with the Lord.
And … If you’re not tight – you probably won’t
choose right. CHARLEY
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