Sometimes people ask me what I am going to do this week. My immediate thought is “I don’t know,” because I am not a planner and days in the future seem to me to be non-existent. Which, in a sense, they are. But I was thinking about this lately, because it seems that people generally like to talk about how busy they are.
One might be overheard saying: “Well, there’s work, and I have a two-day business trip this week, and then I’ve got two nights filled with kids’ activities, one night with small group, and then we’re thinking about taking this class offered at church this weekend.”
Wow. That sounds impressive in our normal way of thinking. We like to be busy and we gain importance by being busy. If someone said, “I don’t know. I like American Idol. I’ll watch that this week. I think I’ve got a lunch scheduled one day, but I can’t remember. Hmmm, I’m really not sure.” That would sound pretty bad.
So, this led me to thinking about what kinds of things we should be busy doing. I mean, what if in response to the question “What are you doing this week?” someone answered like this:
Well, I really don’t know. I mean, I take things day by day. I don’t really know what tomorrow may hold for me or even if I will still be here. I can say that if I am here tomorrow I will make my first priority to spend time with my Heavenly Father. I really just want to spend time in His presence, praying, studying, and learning from Him. As He then directs me I am sure that my day will be full of plenty of business.
I think if someone actually said that it would blow the mind of the one who asked the question. They might not react in any particular way, but inside they would have no idea how to respond. You see it seems that each minute of every day has enough seconds for itself. We tend to try to cram in as many seconds and minutes and hours as we can in every day and at the end of the day we always feel incomplete, unfinished, and overwhelmed. Yet, God has so much to say about all of this. Just as He encourages to think on those things that are good and noble and excellent (Philippians 4:8), think on these things as you consider your plans for the future:
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11 (out of context, but appropriate)
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:25-34
Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Joshua 1:8
These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. Deuteronomy 6:7-9
These things don’t mean that planning is bad. Plenty of scripture teaches us the wisdom of planning. But God teaches us to hold lightly to our plans and to be ready always to follow Him wherever He leads. When we begin to live day by day, moment by moment, we can live in the reality of His presence and leading. We begin to let God be God and turn the reins of our lives back over to the One who truly should hold them.
I want to be someone who answers that my main priority is spending time with God (seeking first His Kingdom and righteousness) and becoming more like Jesus. I want my facebook (and life) status to be (whether I publicize it or not) that I am feeding the hungry, learning more about God’s compassion, teaching others about God’s heart for them, and the like. I don’t want just want to be another hamster on the wheel of the world.