At the Super Bowl one year, a fan was surprised to see an empty seat at the stadium, a die-hard fan remarked about it to a woman sitting nearby. “It was my husband’s,” the woman explained, “But he died.” “I’m very sorry,” said the man. Then, the gentleman said, “Yet I’m really surprised that another relative, or friend, didn’t jump at the chance to take the seat reserved for him.” “Beats me…They all insisted on going to the funeral.” Remarked the woman.
Priorities. Many of us want to a line our priorities based on how much time things will take. We make a list of things to get at the supermarket. Do we make a list based on what we need first? Or, what it closest to the door?
In life, we talk about quality time, time management, financial restraint, and balancing our work life. Instead of thinking about those things based on how much time we spend on them, what if we think about them based on what we do first? How important is it for you to brush your teeth in the morning? I hope it is pretty important because usually that is one of the first things we do in the morning (along with a shower and the morning coffee).
Dwight Eisenhower once said:
Taking first things first often reduces the most complex human problem to a manageable proportion.
If you measure your time based on how long it takes for you to do something, you are missing the point. Prioritizing is what you do first.
There is a story in scripture (Luke 9) where three men are asked to follow Jesus. The first wants to do it, but Jesus tells him if you follow me, you will not have a place to call home. The second man says: Jesus, I would love to be your disciple, but first, I need to bury my father. Jesus says, “Let the dead bury their own.” Harsh right? The third man wants to go say goodbye to his family. Jesus tells the man that he cannot look back. Harsh? (If you want to read the historical background to why these three excuses were cop-outs, go here)
Sure, Jesus wanted these men to love their families, but what you do first matters. What is distinctive for the Christian is that time with and for God is given that first place on the to-do
list. In the Old Testament, God always asked for the first fruits. The first harvest. He asked for the first because that was the best. God wanted the people to give their best to God, not their seconds, or thirds.
We need to be good stewards of our resources. What we do first matters.
We become good stewards when we are freed from an attitude of scarcity to live in the abundance of God. Individuals experience the joy of giving as they respond to God’s call to live as faithful stewards. We need not look at our time, money, resources, talents, an gifts as limited, rather we need to look at them as abundance. We need to remember the source of our resources, and it turn give those resources to God through the local church.
Someone once asked Tom Landry, the former coach of the Dallas Cowboys why he had been so successful as a football coach. He said, “In 1958, I did something everyone who has been successful must do, I determined my priorities for my life — God, family, and then football.” That seem to serve Tom Landry well. He won two Super Bowls.
What we do first matters.
Pentecost 19b
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