Today I have several things to knock out to stay on schedule. Those things will hold most of my attention until they are done. Are they all important in the long run? No. Not really. They seem so because there is a timeline associated with them, but very soon it just won’t matter.
So what am I deeming as “important”? Important to me are the things that will still matter on the day of your funeral. Important also are the things that will matter in Heaven and on Judgment Day. Returning an Amazon package may be urgent, but it is sure not important.
I have a memorial service coming up for my father-in-law soon. His focus in life was largely on career, which happened to be producing race engines. He had a lot of success in that space. It produced a decent income, he was good at it, he enjoyed it, it brought him accolades; but today it is irrelevant.
Career is often like that. I’m sorry to say that the day will come that you won’t matter or may not even be remembered at your place of business, even if it carries your name. The day will come where no one really cares. That is why Solomon got so depressed when he considered his life. He accomplished big things. He held back on nothing that would give him pleasure. Still he could say:
I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. 19 And who knows whether that person will be wise or foolish? Yet they will have control over all the fruit of my toil into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless. 20 So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun.21 For a person may labor with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then they must leave all they own to another who has not toiled for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune.
Ecclesiastes 2:18-21 (NIV)
Just in case you are wondering, his son was a fool. What wise Solomon seemed to lack was a knowledge about God’s plans for us a result of Jesus’ life and death. He lacked knowledge of eternal life. If our existence is just these few decades in a corrupted world, then what is the point? But God has made us to be eternal beings and provided the way for our eternity to be pure joy rather than suffering. Because of Jesus, several things then become “important”.
Forgiveness and entrance into Heaven is not the privilege of all. In fact, Jesus says it is the blessing of a relative few. But for those who will share eternity with God, it is the result of God’s gift to us. We don’t earn or deserve it, and there is nothing we can do to achieve it. Receiving God’s grace through baptism into the body of Christ is terribly important and urgent, but it is done to you not by you.
The important things that we need to attend to are things that preserve our connection to Christ and things that are aspects of our God-given purpose in this life that will transcend our death.
There are a set of practices that are prescribed mostly for the purpose of spiritual preservation. They include being a student of the Bible, prayer, worship, fighting our sinful nature and confessing our failures in that regard, and participation in the Lord’s Supper. These things do take time and effort. They are deeply important, but they don’t feel necessarily urgent. Consequently, they can never become established in our life or we can slip away from them easily, and that is dangerous.
Also, we need to attend to the things that God wishes to accomplish in this world through us. In broad categories they are: making disciples of Jesus, doing good, resisting evil, and being good stewards of the resources God gives us. This could include your career if you are motivated by your relationship with God. If your motivation is cash or glory, then no. This certainly does include taking care of your marriage, being a good parent, being a caring child. God cares about people and relationships. Throw these under the career bus and you are a failure despite your success. You may get a documentary made about you, but God won’t care.
The sooner God gets through to you about His offer of grace and His priorities for you, the better off you are. It still takes some clear thinking and discipline to put the urgent in the proper balance with the important. I fear, most won’t get it and will live to experience their own irrelevance and eventually far worse. I self-published a book about this called “Wise Priorities”. It is still available through Amazon and maybe other outlets. I’m not even sure they pay me when it sells. My reward is that you would receive both God’s grace and your reward, by keeping the important first.
Giving Christ 