First Things First

It's been a while since I've written an actual blog post.  I've posted sermons and such, but I haven't written something just for this blog.  I'm sorry about that, but I've just been really busy lately.

One of my favorite quotes from my favorite TV show, Doctor Who, is “First things first, but not necessarily in that order.”  You see, one of my constant struggles is with prioritizing things.  There are lots of things I'd like to do.  I consider all of them good things.  I consider all of them important things.  But there are only twenty-four hours in a day, and for some reason God has decided not to give me an exemption from that.

So, no matter how much I'd like to do everything, there are some things that I cannot do.  That means that I have to make choices about what I will do and what I will not do.  Sometimes, that means that things get put off until a later time, when I do have time to do them.  Other times, it just means that either certain things will have to be done by something else, or they won't be done at all.

Now, I understand that I'm not the only one who has to do this.  There are many other people—probably most people—who have to do the same thing.  I would guess that most of us have more things we'd like to do than we have time to do them.

Again, none of us gets more than twenty-four hours in a day.  And we have to spend some of those hours sleeping, and some of them eating, and some of them doing other things that simply have to be done to live.  That means we get, at most twelve to fourteen hours in which we can actually be doing something productive.

And when I say “productive”, I'm using that in the broadest possible sense.  Doing something “productive” includes spending time with our families.  Doing something “productive” includes getting some exercise.  Doing something “productive” includes taking some time to relax and have fun.  We can overdo any or all of those things, but if we don't spend some of our time doing them, we're probably not going to live a very good, a very happy, or a very long life.

So, we need to come to terms with the fact that we will never be able to do all the things we'd like to do.  And you know what?  That's okay.  In fact, there are ways in which it's a good thing.  After all, if I'd already done everything I ever wanted to do, there'd be no point in going on, would there?  Having things we still want to do, having goals we've not yet reached, is one of the things that keeps us active and makes us keep going.

The desire to do more, the desire to know more, the desire to achieve more—these are all a part of the human spirit.  These things have been put into our souls by God.  They are a part of what makes us what we are.  If, for any reason, we lose that desire, we become less than what God intends us to be.

So, I'll probably continue to struggle with prioritizing.  You probably will, too.  And you know what?  That's a good thing.  Because it means that we're all still trying to be everything that God wants us to be.