In his yet-to-be published book, Scandalous Discipleship: A Disciple-Making Primer, Seth Barnes writes about our use of time and what we give precedence in our daily lives:
The urgent often masquerades as the important. The tasks of the day are often urgent. But if we call Jesus Lord, we must affirm daily – by our choices of how to spend time and energy – that discipling others is what is truly important.
It is his mandate to us and our identity must be measured against his last words, to “go and make disciples”. Our commitments must allow time for relationships. Our eyes need to be always open to situations where we can bring someone along with us – and then spend time discussing the experience with them.
I read that passage this week. It was a direct challenge to re-think my Post-It Notes of priorities and to-do lists. I have emails to answer, bills to pay, deadlines to make, semesters to plan, and more.
But in the midst of doing everything that I need to get done, am I focused on the goal of living out the Great Commission? Or am I concentrating more on the goal of checking one thing off just to move to the next and achieve some personal tinge of accomplishment?
What am I overlooking when I’m consumed with everything I have to do?
I hope this challenges you to think about what you’re doing right now and why. For one, I’m trying to ask myself these questions about my day-to-day activities:
What’s the purpose? Is it checking an item off or actually moving forward?
What’s really important? Figure it out and don’t put it off.
What’s urgent and just masquerading as important?
Well, maybe that can wait.
This doesn’t mean organization and to-do lists are bad, of course. Just a friendly reminder to keep our eyes on the prize!
