Go ahead and list the top five most time consuming things in the waking hours of your week.
Whether you realize it or not, these are your top five priorities. This may be a little embarrassing for you to go back and look at your list of priorities. Is entertainment high? Do you spend a lot of time watching TV and movies, or playing video games? Maybe you are not organized and spend way too much time managing your paperwork and other clutter around your house. Or maybe you are feeling pretty good because you spend more time than you realized with your family or at church. Where did you rank your “Me” time? This is time that is exclusively for you, maybe it is working out, reading a book, taking a bubble bath or doing something else for your own relaxation and pleasure. I have put the time I spend in these five categories.
1. God – church, Bible Study, alone time, family devotions…
2. Family – children, husband, parents, sisters, nieces, nephews…
3. Entertainment – movies, TV, vacations, camping, video games…
4. Myself – diet, exercise, reading, haircuts…
5. Work – boss, salary, success, recognition, cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping…
6. Finances – managing possessions, worry about debt, checkbook…
Maybe you could add more or make this list fit your life. Of course there is some cross-over most vacations include family; and reading could be considered entertainment.
The world tells you that your life should be arranged like a wheel and the hub or center of all these things should be yourself and everything else should rotate around it. I am sure if you have watched any TV you hear this over and over again. These are a few quotes I got after watching very little daytime TV: “After all, isn’t it all about you,” “You deserve some Me time,” “If you don’t put yourself first, you won’t be able to take care of anything else,” "Let's celebrate You!" you could probably add to this list. In fact, if we are not careful we will buy into this because it makes some sense. If we don't care about ourselves how can we care about anyone else... There is a story in the Bible about a man who bought into this very self-centered way of thinking.
Luke 12:
16And He (Jesus) told them a parable, saying, "The land of a rich man was very productive. 17"And he began reasoning to himself, saying, 'What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?' 18"Then he said, 'This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19'And I will say to my soul, "Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry."'
In many ways I can relate to this guy. He is being responsible, he is making time for himself, he is using his resources wisely. What is wrong with that? Here is Jesus’ response to this man: 20"But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?'
This man is not seeing the big picture, he has his priorities out of order, he had bought into this world view that tells us to put ourselves in the center. God wants to be placed at the center of the wheel with the other priorities orbiting around God. Imagine how that would change everything that you do! Would that mean you could no longer enjoy entertainment or enjoy watching your finances grow? Not necessarily, but the way you look at these things will be different.
For instance, instead of saying once my savings gets to be this big then I can finally buy a boat and spend every weekend relaxing on the lake. You may say, once my savings gets this big I am going to help the church buy those new Bibles they needed, or help this missionary, or buy a boat that can be used at this camp or this youth group. We need to see beyond the end of our nose.
This is where a discussion about world views will pick up next week.
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