Priorities

I wrote this poem early one morning after coming back from a prayer meeting. At the time, I was reminded how many activities, projects, programs, and events can take over my schedule. There were so many options (and still are). Even good things.

I was confronted with decisions (and still am) about where I will spend my time. The days are evil; time can be a tool or an enemy. In Ephesians, Paul offers some relevant counsel: “Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is” (5:15-17). As noted in James 4, thinking we have “plenty of time” is presumptuous.

And yet, the problem isn’t really about time but priorities. As Charles Hummel commented in The Tyranny of the Urgent, “Our dilemma goes deeper than shortage of time; it is basically a problem of priorities.” In other words, there are things we’d like to do and don’t, not because we lack the desire but because we have other priorities.

Live wisely. Redeem the time. Pursue God. Know what’s truly important. Make the most of every opportunity. Use this time to prepare patiently and serve wholeheartedly. Do something of eternal value and embrace whatever you do with joy. These are truths to live by.

And so came a list I started to use personally as a guide for prioritizing, using time wisely, and joining others in their ministry. The reference to marching is a reference to 2 Chronicles 25:7, when a man of God warns Amaziah that he must not allow Judah to march with the troops of Israel, for “the Lord is not with Israel.”

My takeaway here is, with whom am I marching?

May you be blessed.

Should It Be Done?

Only so much energy, so much time—

It’s Your Kingdom I want to build, not mine.

Good deeds I realize You have prepared.

The harvest is plenty—I can’t be spared.

Fulfilling Your plan will help me to grow,

But how can I discern? How can I know?

Should it be done? Should it be done?

Are souls encouraged, challenged, or won?

How do they worship—in truth and in spirit? Does it vitalize me when I hear it

Or resemble the world when described?

Do they worship the way You have prescribed?

Would I be marching for gain or self-glory?

Whose is the exalted story?

What is the all-consuming mission—

Wealth? Power? Performance? Competition?

Is heaven’s glory and prize at the root?

Are they already bearing acceptable fruit?

Would their effort in person Christ commend?

Does their walk on man or place depend?

Does their service revolve around knowledge or love?

Do they choose what God is in favor of?

Have they at all to trends conformed? Are their minds by the Spirit being transformed?

Is there a love that compels them to act,

Or do they want only men to attract?

We live in a time of evil days;

Too brief a goal is man’s shallow praise.

But again I ask, “Should it be done?”

Can it claim value not “under the sun”?

Seeing the works around me, I pray

My own efforts would not be polluted this way.