Often times I catch myself judging other’s priorities. Like for instance this morning I was driving into work and I saw this little run down shack of a house and this big beautiful Range Rover was pulling out of it. I was at a red light so I could see how new it was, probably a 2014, but I immediately thought to myself, “man, you live there but drive that? Priorities, dude, priorities.” And then smacked myself in the head, why would I judge like that? I don’t know that guy! I don’t have any clue what’s inside that run down shack. For all I know, he was visiting someone, or he lives there and the walls are decorated with expensive works of art, maybe he works close to home living there and his taxes are low and driving a nice car is his luxury. People often comment on the color of my hair. It’s dark. Always has been, but for many years I bleached it out with heavy highlights or straight up all over color. Now, it’s completely mine. I shy away from my sparkly streaks of silver, but what I get most often is, “Is that your real hair color? Do you know your eyebrows are blonde? There is no way your hair is that dark!” Sometimes I take it as a complement, other times it comes off judgey and hurtful. Just like the guy in the shack/Range Rover, it’s my decision to keep it dark as it is his decision to live in a graffiti covered shack and drive a $70k car. I am one of those people that is ‘inflexibly goal oriented’ meaning that when I set my mind to something – like winning the Biggest Loser Challenge at work, I’ll stop at nothing to put the fork down. We live this way, we tend to segregate our time into moments which constitute work and sacrifice leisure. My type of personality doesn’t care for overlap or ambiguity, I prefer schedules and time constraints. This has a devastating effect on relationships. What I began to see on my drive to work this morning was that our priorities mean the most to us, for me, building a charity, not having time to care for myself, put others ahead of me. Setting priorities encourages the tendency to segregate and compartmentalize our lives so that we see everything on the list as a “chore” which must be completed. Once we complete the highest priority item on the list, we’re free to move on to the next item until our list is exhausted and we make a new one. I don’t want taking care of myself to be a chore. I desire to make myself better on the outside so that my insides will be free to create. The thought of making myself a chore fosters the idea that at some point, I’ll stop caring about myself. And at that point, I’ll welcome more self esteem problems (as if there aren’t enough already), health issues, among the many other things that cause these ‘earth suits’ to disintegrate. I need to think about myself as a vessel for God’s will. I want to be a common thread in other’s daily activities, whether it be in their physical lives, or their everyday Facebook read. When I begin looking at myself more as a priority, I can begin to feel like I’m more valuable that an item on my list. If we’re guilty of doing this with ourselves, then how much more are we guilty of doing this with God? Consider that if you set God as one among many priorities in your life, then obviously you are the one setting priorities, not God. As contrary as it may sound, God does not want to be a priority in our lives. He does not even want to be our first priority. He wants to be the One who sets the priorities. God desires to be our all and everything – the context in which we accomplish everything we do. He wants to share in every aspect of our lives and desires that we call upon Him and converse with Him throughout the day, not just at some predetermined, prescheduled time. – I’m guilty of this. Prayer for Today: Father, help me to see that my priorities are to be set by you. Help me to desire to eliminate ‘have to’s’ and implement ‘want to’s’. I need you, Jesus, everyday to guide me to what is important to you, not to me. Thank you for Calvary, Amen.
Posted on: Mon, 28 Jul 2014 12:42:45 +0000
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