| There's no such thing as priorities
“Go ahead - sleep in. I’ll take baby girl.”
My wife had very generously gifted me the morning off for my birthday. Unfortunately, my brain flipped to 'wide awake' at 4.30am.
Feeling reflective, I decided to make the most of the early start. I walked to the beach to watch the sunrise. On my journey, I thought back on the year - the wins, the challenges, the things I had learned.
One of the major lessons God had been teaching me was this:
You can only have one main thing.
In Essentialism, Greg McKeown writes (emphasis my own):
"The word priority came into the English language in the 1400s. It was singular. It meant the very first or prior thing. It stayed singular for the next five hundred years.
Only in the 1900s did we pluralise the term and start talking about priorities. Illogically, we reasoned that by changing the word we could end reality. Somehow we could now be able to have multiple 'first' things...
This gave the impression of many things being the priority but actually meant nothing was."
I can easily fall into that trap - especially because there are many good and important things. It is good to be invested in your relationships, your family, your work, your community. It is good to want to steward the domains of your life well.
I am seeing how those good things suffer if they become the one main thing. I am learning there's no such thing as priorities - you can only have one main thing.
Competing priorities create an increasing sense of internal conflict because they weren't made for competing. They were made to come under and be informed by the one main thing.
1 John 2:15 says, "If anyone loves the world, the Father's love is not in them."
That convicts me - there is only space in my heart for one kind of love. I'm either filled with love for the world or filled with the love of God. It's not that God withdraws His love - it is always and readily available. It's just that He won't force it on me and it's incompatible with love for the world.
Love for the world slowly empties me and strangles the life out of good and noble pursuits. If I don't begin with the love of God, every good thing I put my hand to ultimately loses its goodness. In fact, they may even become unintentional barriers to experiencing the love of God. Consider Paul's testimony in Philippians 3:4-6. He was doing 'good' things at peak performance and only becoming emptier!
When the love of God is the main thing, it magnifies all the other important things. It brings an order and focus. I know this is Gospel 101, but that's a class I need to attend often and forever. And I don't think I'm alone:
Regardless of the topic they begin with, my experience has been that the majority of coaching sessions with leaders seem to end with the leader reaffirming their need to make space to be with God before anything else. In the process of time to think, reflect, and be asked open questions, leaders are drawn back to the one main thing.
In Luke 10:42, Jesus affirms Mary for remembering, "only one thing is necessary."
May you live freely and fully as you keep Jesus your one main thing.
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Over to you:
What is the most important action you could take this week to keep Jesus as the priority?
Why is this important to you?
What is the biggest obstacle to you reaching your goal?
What can you do to reduce the friction?
Bonus tip: Put your intentions in writing and make them visible. You're much more likely to follow through! As Gandhi said, "Action expresses priorities."
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