In Our Midst

Let's Talk About Priorities

I'll be the first to admit it. It is tough keeping the main thing the main thing. No matter how dedicated, how devoted, how passionate we are about keeping our priorities straight, the natural course of our lives is often in complete conflict with our priorities. It's that way at home. It's that way at work. And even when your work is "ministry," it's that way there too.

I've seen it time after time with pastors, ministers, ministry workers, and church leaders. Many of us have gone into ministry because that is God's call on our lives or because that is the passion He has given us -- or both. And when we begin the work of ministry, we are on fire, gung-ho, and radically devoted to the ministry at hand.

We want to impact lives for Christ. We want to see souls won in Jesus' name. We want to see the hopeless find hope and the hurting find healing. But in the course of the daily grind, we find ourselves buried under mounds of paperwork and ever-growing "to do" lists, and inundated with phone calls from committee chairmen and department heads. Everyone has a need. Everyone has their own priority.

This group needs a room to meet in. That group needs an announcement in the Sunday bulletin. Other groups need copies made, extra chairs, donuts and coffee. And the list goes on. And suddenly, what should be about ministry becomes a scramble to locate things and shuffle words and scrape up supplies. Oh, I know. All these "things" need to be done so that ministry can take place in these areas, and that's fine. However, when aerobics classes and cartoons take priority over meeting people at the point of their need with the love, truth, and hope of Christ...well, that is a problem.

I don't mean to sound critical here. As I said, I'm just as guilty as the next person of getting distracted by details or side-tracked by drudgery. I needed to be reminded today to keep my own priorities in place. Maybe you needed that reminder as well. Whatever we do today, let's be sure we're doing it for the right reason and for the right Person.