Back on the treadmill again
I guess for all of us, there comes a time in our lives when we realise that we are just doing the same thing over and over again. Not that we are doing anything wrong, or that what we are doing isn't good, or even worthwhile, but we are just carrying on doing the same thing over and over again.
I was aware that I was doing it just this week. For a number of years I have been a full time Pastor, but recently God provided a job for me. Although I now have the privilege of working for one of my sons, it really is a full time job that is quite demanding, spending all day talking to people on the phone.
Well I had just slotted into a the old routine that I remembered from the past of getting up in the morning, going to work, coming home, going to Church meetings and then back to bed again. It is a routine that I had lived with for years in the past and in many ways I was quite comfortable with it. It is a simple routine where it is easy to understand what you are doing and why you are doing it. There is nothing wrong with it and it is something that just has to be done.
Someone once told me that 'man will always find ways of filling up the time that God has given him' and I have to admit, that is exactly what I have been doing. It was starting to look like my week was so tightly packed that there was no room in it for anything else. I now have things that I want to do, but I just can't find the time to do them. Is this starting to sound familiar to you? If it is, you are probably the same as me and most other people in the world as well.
Yes, I admit it; I had started to do the same as everyone else again. I was now doing things that are important late at night. Unfortunately, this means that when I'm doing the important things (the things that really matter) I'm worn out, prone to making mistakes and a lot more under pressure to get them done. This also means that I'm feeling tired, in need of sleep so that I can start the whole process all over again tomorrow.
Added to this, because I'm now having less sleep, I'm starting to get grouchy and irritable with people. My wife asked me this morning, "Do you think we could spend some time together because we have become a bit like ships that pass in the night"?
Then the thought occurred to me:
Oh! God, I'm back on the treadmill again. How did this happen?
Thank God, there is a graceful way of getting off the treadmill without falling flat on your face. It is called talking to God about re-arranging your priorities. I've been having a chat with God and that is exactly what God is talking to me about right now. He is reminding me what the priorities really are. You see the word 'priority' means: - a status established in order of importance or urgency; preceding in time.
This is one of the places where we make the biggest mistakes. So often, we leave the important things until last. It is easy to justify this to ourselves by saying that I have got things out of the way to make time for the important things. But in truth, we have just been putting things off till the last minute.
God has a priority that Jesus talked about in the bible (Matthew 6:33) when He said, "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness…". This is the priority that God wants us to understand. This is the priority that God wants us to live our lives by and He backs this up with a promise "…and all these things shall be added unto you."
If you will give your time to God, before you do anything else, He will reorder your day with you and you will suddenly find that it all fits together so much better. That which was a pressure now becomes easy to do. You will soon find that you are off the treadmill. No longer struggling to keep up with other things, but doing things in a Godly order and with a Godly peace in your life.