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Redeeming the time, because the days are evil (Ephesians 5:16, KJV).
Early in my walk with Jesus, I read a short pamphlet titled “Tyranny of the Urgent” by Charles Hummel and underlined this quote…
Your greatest danger is letting urgent things crowd out the important.
Hummel, in his book, continued…
We live in constant tension between the urgent and the important. The problem is that many important tasks need not be done today, or even this week. Extra hours of prayer and Bible study, a visit to an elderly friend, reading an important book: these activities can usually wait a while longer. But often urgent, though less important, tasks call for immediate response – endless demands pressure every waking hour.
We all experience the urgent crowding out of the important. As a young pastor raising a family, I dealt with this pressure constantly. I once told a friend of mine, “I feel guilty when I’m home with my family that I should be at the church working, and I feel guilty when I’m at the church that I should be home.”
To overcome the tyranny of the urgent in my life, I developed what I called “no compromise commitments.” These disciplines, or set times on my calendar, were rarely interrupted, as I felt they were God’s will. I could then justify going to the gym and riding my bike regularly as God’s will, and I treated a Friday night date with my wife, vacations, and praying with my family with the same “no compromise commitment.”
I did the same with early morning devotions, one-to-one discipling, developing leaders in the church, and my small group. I de-emphasized meetings as I found they procreated urgent matters too often. One day, I created tension by walking out of an elders’ meeting to attend my daughter’s last high school soccer game, thinking that I had many future elders’ meetings to attend, but only one last daughter’s soccer game.
In our attempt to win the tyranny of the urgent battle, consider this parable…
You leave home with $150 in your budget, going to Dick’s Sporting Goods® to purchase a much-needed hoodie. As you entered the store, you noted a nice-looking Yeti® water bottle at $50, then you found yourself walking through the shoe section, noticing a camo pair of Nike slides for $65, and just before you came to the hoodie section, you grabbed a $45 pair of DSG Croaker® sunglasses because they are 25 percent off.
HHHHMMMHHM … you’ve collected $148.75 in your cart, and with a $150 budget, you now have $1.25 left for your much-needed hoodie (and, to add to your anxiety, it’s started to thunder and rain outside). What do you do? You grab the hoodie, pull out your phone, and charge $298.75 plus tax to Google Pay® and leave the store.
When you get home, you first complain to your spouse about the cost of living today and then text your best friend asking her to pray for God’s provision.
Should you really be upset? Should I, or anyone else, feel sorry for you? You let the “seemingly” urgent need burn through your budget. This is the secret to beating the tyranny of the urgent — not letting the urgent become the most important!
As the Apostle Paul writes in Ephesians 5:17 (ESV), “Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is!” Since we stumble so often, fortunately, we walk in God’s grace.
A successful shopping trip or not?