TYRANNY OF THE URGENT

Posted on March 19, 2009

How do you avoid frenzy?  How do you avoid the, typical middle-class, lifestyle of living as if your head's on fire?
 
The answer:  Prioritize!  Prioritize so that the urgent doesn't dictate our lives.  The urgent is merely an over-abundance of frivolous activities which only take up valuable time and can achieve results, but doesn't add much to what really counts - the life and death stuff of eternity.  Being sidetracked by the urgent, in our overly stimulated culture, is like having a diet of cotton candy compared to one of meat and potatoes.  So why get sidetracked when we're here for only a "blink of an eye"?
 
But how do you set priorities?  Try something extreme like Jesus did.  Try silence -- the thing that is intensely counter-cultural.  A cell phone ad a few years ago said, "Silence is weird."  So get weird like Jesus did.  Jesus regularly got silent.  He escaped to isolated places, to be by himself, in order to listen to His Father (Luke 5:16).  His public ministry was fueled by what he did in solitude and silence.
 
Why are most people afraid of silence and solitude?  Perhaps we are fearful of the self examination that the apostle Paul mandated?  Another reason is that if we constantly stay busy, we don't have to acknowledge the re-arranging God wants us to make in order for Him to favor us.  Our (yours and mine) bent is to want to be in control - to hold the aces.  But, the fact is, our aces are really like deuces compared to the aces, the kings and the queens that God desires to deal to us.  (Read my 3/19/08 blog Wife Disses Husband's New Priorities)
 
An analogy is with our own children and grandchildren.  Wouldn't it be good if they weren't jabbering and always wanting to tell you something?  Gimme, gimme, gimme.  Don't you wish they'd sometimes just be quiet so you could convey some real love and truth that would enormously bless them?
 
God feels the same way about us.  He wants to care for us.  But he can really only do that when we are being silent and listening to him.  We do this by regularly being immersed in His Word and prayer.
 
Development of such a habit pays off in unimaginable rewards (Romans 12:2 and Hebrews 11:6).  You'll be less cranky and more content.  Less stressed and much calmer.  Not bad benefits for a little quiet time, uh?
 
www.menwhowin.com has my eight minute radio show downloads for men along with archived newsletters and blogs.

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WIFE DISSES HUSBAND'S NEW PRIORITIES      
by Gary Chester
 
I personally have a friend who became a new Christian.  He was excited about his new life, but his wife wasn't. 
 
His wife thought his new priorities to be over the top.  He had started to jog and have a prayer and Bible reading time each morning prior to her and their children getting up.  His wife wasn't at all into exercise and definitely not into read more


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