Tyranny of the Urgent By Charles E. Hummel

I read this with my church group and it made so much sense, I wanted to share it with everyone. It really gives a good point for reflection... If you feel so compelled please share and comment...I will post my thoughts in the comment section!

With Love,

Ms. Cocoa Butterfly (Shaun)

Tyranny of the Urgent

Charles E. Hummel

Have you ever wished for a thirty-hour day? Surely this extra time would relieve the tremendous pressure under which we live. Our lives leave a trail of unfinished tasks. Unanswered letters, unvisited friends, unwritten articles, and unread books haunt quiet moments when we stop to evaluate. We desperately need relief. But would a thirty-hour day really solve the problem? Wouldn’t we soon be just as frustrated as we are now with our twenty-four allotment? A mother’s work is never finished, and neither is that of any student, teacher, minister, or anyone else we know. Nor will the passage of time help us catch up. Children grow in number and age to require more of our time. Greater experience in profession and church brings more exacting assignments. So we find ourselves working more and enjoying it less.

JUMBLED PRIORITIES…

When we stop to evaluate, we realize that our dilemma goes deeper than a shortage of time; it is basically the problem of priorities. Hard work does not hurt us. We all know what it is to go full speed for long hours, totally involved in an important task. The resulting weariness is matched by a sense of achievement and joy. Not hard work, but doubt and misgiving, produce anxiety as we review a month or year and become oppressed by the pile of unfinished tasks. We sense uneasily that we may have failed to do the important. The winds of people’s demands have driven us onto a reef of frustration. We confess, quite apart from our sins, “We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; and we have done those things which we ought not to have done.” Several years ago an experienced cotton mill manager said to me, “Your greatest danger is letting the urgent things crowd out the important.” He didn’t realize how hard his maxim hit. It often returns to haunt and rebuke me by raising the critical problem of priorities. We live in constant tension between the urgent and the important. The problem is that the important task rarely must be done today or even this week. Extra hours of prayer and Bible study, a visit with the non-Christian friend, careful study of an important book: these projects can wait. But the urgent tasks call for instant action---endless demands pressure every hour and day. A man’s home is no longer his castle; it is no longer a place from urgent tasks because the telephone breaches the walls with imperious demands. The momentary appeal of these tasks seems irresistible and important, and they devour our energy. But in the light of time’s perspective their deceptive prominence fades; with a sense of loss we recall the important task pushed aside. We realize we’ve become slaves to the tyranny of the urgent.

CAN YOU ESCAPE…….?

Is there any escape from this pattern of living? The answer lies in the life of our Lord. On the night before He died, Jesus made an astonishing claim. In the great prayer of John 17 He said, “ I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do” (verse 4). How could Jesus use the word “finished”? His three-year ministry seemed all too short. A prostitute at Simon’s banquet had found forgiveness and a new life, but many others still walked the street without forgiveness and a new life. For every ten withered muscles that had flexed into health, a hundred remained impotent. Yet on that last night, with many useful tasks undone and urgent human needs unmet, the Lord had peace; He knew He had finished God’s work. The Gospel records show that Jesus worked hard. After describing a busy day Mark writes, “That evening at sundown, they brought to Him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered about the door. And He healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons” (1:32-34). On another occasion the demand of the ill and maimed caused Him to miss supper and to work so late that His family thought He was beside Himself (Mark 3:21). One day after a strenuous teaching session, Jesus and His disciples went out in a boat. Even a storm didn’t awaken Him (Mark 4:37-38). What a picture of exhaustion. Yet His life was never feverish; He had time for people. He could spend hours talking to one person, such as the Samaritan women at the well. His life showed a wonderful balance, a sense of timing. When His brothers wanted Him to go to Judea, He replied, “My time has not yet come” (John 7:6). Jesus did not ruin His gifts by haste. In The Discipline and Culture of the Spiritual Life, A.E. Whiteham observes; “Here in this Man is adequate purpose…inward rest, that gives an air of leisure to His crowded life: above all there is in this Man a secret and a power of dealing with the waste-products of life, the waste of pain, disappointment, enmity, death---turning to divine uses the abuses of man, transforming arid places of pain to fruitfulness, triumphing at last in death and making a short life of thirty years or so, abruptly cut off, to be a ‘finished’ life. We cannot admire the poise and beauty of this human life, and then ignore the things that made it.”

WAIT FOR INSTRUCTIONS…

What was the secret of Jesus’ work? We find a clue following Mark’s account of Jesus’ busy day. Mark observes that “….in the morning, a great while before day, He rose and went out to a lonely place, and there He prayed” (Mark 1:35). Here is the secret of Jesus’ life and work for God: He prayerfully waited for His Father’s instructions and for the strength to follow them. Jesus had no divinely-drawn blueprint; He discerned the Father’s will day by day in a life of prayer. By this means He warded off the urgent and accomplished the important. Lazarus’s death illustrates this principle. What could have been more important than the urgent message from Mary and Martha, “Lord, he whom you love is ill” (John 11:3)? John records the Lord’s response in these paradoxical words: “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when He heard that he was ill, He stayed two days longer in the place where He was” (verses 5-6). What was the urgent need? Obviously it was to prevent the death of this beloved brother. But the important thing from God’s point of view was to raise Lazarus from the dead. So Lazarus was allowed to die. Later Jesus revived him as a sign of His magnificent claim, “I am the resurrection and the life: he who believes in Me though he die, yet shall he live” (verse 25). We may wonder why our Lord’s ministry was so short, why it could not have lasted another five or ten years, why so many wretched sufferers were left in their misery. Scripture gives not answer to these questions, and we leave them in the mystery of God’s purposes. But we do know that Jesus’ prayerful waiting for God’s instructions freed Him from the tyranny of the urgent. It gave Him a sense of direction, set a steady pace and enabled Him to do every task God assigned. And on the last night He could say, “I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do.”

DEPENDENCE MAKES YOU FREE…

Freedom from the tyranny of the urgent is found in the example and promise of our Lord. At the end of a vigorous debate with the Pharisees in Jerusalem, Jesus said to those who believed in Him: “If you continue in My Word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free… Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin…So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:31-36). Many of us have experienced Christ’s deliverance from the penalty of sin. Are we letting Him free us from the tyranny of the urgent? He points the way: “If you continue in My Word.” This is the way to freedom. Through prayerful meditation on God’s Word we gain His perspective. P.T. Forsyth once said, “The worst sin is prayerlessness.” We usually think of murder, adultery, or theft as among the worst. But the root of all sin is self-sufficiency---independence from God. When we fail to wait prayerfully for God’s guidance and strength we are saying, with our actions, if not our lips, that we do not need Him. How much of our service is characterized by “going it alone”? The opposite of such independence is prayer in which we acknowledge our need for God’s instruction and supply. Concerning a dependent relationship with God, Donald Baillie says: “Jesus lived His life in complete dependence upon God, as we all ought to live our lives. But such dependence does not destroy human personality. Man is never so truly and fully personal as when he is living in complete dependence upon God. This is how personality comes into its own. This is humanity at its most personal.” Prayerful waiting on God is indispensable to effective service. Like the time-out in a football game, it enables us to catch our breath and fix new strategy. As we wait for directions, the Lord frees us from the tyranny of the urgent. He shows us the truth about Himself, ourselves, and our tasks. He impresses on our minds the assignments He want us to undertake. The need itself is not the call; the call must come form the God who knows our limitation. “The Lord pities those who fear Him. For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust” (Psalm 103:13-14). It is not God who loads us until we bend or crack with an ulcer, nervous breakdown, heart attack, or stroke. These come from our inner compulsions coupled with the pressure of circumstances.

EVALUATE…

The modern businessman recognizes this principle of taking time out for evaluation. When Greenwalt was president of DuPont, he said, “One minute spent in planning saves three or four minutes in execution.” Many salesmen have revolutionized their profits by setting aside Friday afternoon to plan carefully the major activities for the coming week. If an executive is too busy to stop and plan, he may find himself replaced by another man who takes time to plan. If the Christian is too busy to stop, take spiritual inventory, and receive his assignments from God, he becomes a slave to the tyranny of the urgent. He may work day and night to achieve much that seems significant to himself and others, but he will not finish the work God has for him to do. A quiet time of meditation and prayer at the start of the day refocuses our relationship with God. Recommit yourself to His will as you think of the hours that follow. In these unhurried moments list in order of priority the tasks to be done, taking into account commitments already made. A competent general always draws up his battle plan before he engages the enemy; he does not postpone basic decisions until the firing starts. But he is also prepared to change his plans if an emergency demands it. So try to implement the plans you have made before the day’s battle against the clock begins. But be open to any emergency interruption or unexpected person who may call. You may also find it necessary to resist the temptation to accept an engagement when the invitation first comes over the telephone. No matter how clear the calendar may look at the moment, ask for a day or two to pray for guidance before committing yourself. Surprisingly the engagement often appears less important after the pleading voice has become silent. If you can withstand the urgency of the initial moment, you will be in a better position to weigh the cost and discern whether the task is God’s will for you. In addition to your daily quiet time, set aside one hour a week for spiritual inventory. Write an evaluation of the past, record anything God may be teaching you, and plan objectives for the future. Also try to reserve most of one day each month for a similar inventory of longer range. Often you will fail. Ironically, the busier you get the more you need this time of inventory, but the less you seem to be able to take it. You become like the fanatic, who, when unsure of his direction, doubles his speed. And frenetic service for God can become an escape from God. But when you prayerfully take inventory and plan your days, it provides fresh perspective on your work.

CONTINUE THE EFFORT…

Over the years the greatest continuing struggle in the Christian life is the effort to make adequate time for daily waiting on God, weekly inventory, and monthly planning. Because this time for receiving marching orders is so important, Satan will do everything he can to squeeze it out. Yet we know from experience that only by this means can we escape the tyranny of the urgent. This is how Jesus succeeded. He did not finish all the urgent tasks in Palestine or all the things He would have liked to do, but He did finish the work which God gave Him to do. The only alternative to frustration is to be sure that we are doing what God wants. Nothing substitutes for knowing that this day, this hour, in this place we are doing the will of the Father. Then and only then can we think of all the other unfinished tasks with equanimity and leave them with God. Sometime ago Simba bullets killed a young man, Dr Paul Carson. In the providence of God, his life’s work was finished. Most of us will live longer and die more quietly, but when the end comes, what could give us greater joy than being sure that we have finished the work God gave us to do? The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ makes this fulfillment possible. He has promised deliverance from the sin and the power to serve God in the tasks of His choice. The way is clear. If we continue in the Word of our Lord, we are truly His disciples. And He will free us from the tyranny of the urgent, free us to do the important, which is the will of God.


Copyright 1967 by Intervarsity Christian Fellowship. Reprinted by permission of InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, Il 60515

A Discussion of Tyranny of the Urgent

It seems to me that perfection of means and confusion of goals seem to characterize our age.
-Albert Einstein
The good is often the enemy of the best.
-Unknown

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Zeitgeist Movie: Religion, 911, Money

I watched this video a while ago, and got a new version today... Please be warned that this video deals with RELIGION, 911, AND MONEY

I did not create the video, but I have watched it and would like to know what you think...

Click here to watch the movie

(Just incase the link is http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-594683847743189197#)

Can't wait to read what you think.

Love Note- Wilderness Mentality

I got this email, as I do daily, but today it touched somewhere different. Just had to share.

Shaun

Love Note - Wilderness Mentality

March 3

The Lord our God said to us in Horeb, You have dwelt long enough on this mountain. Turn and take up your journey and go to the hill country of the Amorites. . . . Behold, I have set the land before you; go in and take possession of the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their descendants after them.
- Deuteronomy 1:6-8

Those of us who are parents know these words so well: "In a minute. Just a little longer." We call our children to leave their playing and come inside, but they want just a little more time to stay out with their friends. For now, at least, they're content playing and don't want to think about getting cleaned up or eating dinner. It's always, "Just a little longer"-if we let them. And at times, we adults act a little like those children who cry out, "Just a little longer."

I've met miserable people-those who disliked their lives, hated their jobs, or were in intolerable relationships with the wrong kind of people. They knew they were miserable, but they did nothing about it. "Just a little longer." A little longer for what? More pain? More discouragement? More unhappiness?

Those are the people who have what I call the wilderness mentality. I want to explain that. Moses led the people of Israel out of Egypt. If they had obeyed God, stopped their grumbling, and moved straight ahead as God originally told them, they could have made the trip in eleven days. But it took them forty years.

Why did they finally leave? Only because God said, "You have dwelt long enough on this mountain." If God hadn't pushed them into the Promised Land, I wonder how long they would have stayed and longed to cross the Jordan.

They were people in bondage. Although they had seen miracles in Egypt and had praised God at the defeat of the Egyptian armies at the Red Sea, they were still in bondage. The chains were no longer on their bodies, but they had never removed those chains from their minds. That is the wilderness mentally.

For forty years, they grumbled. They had no water, and then God provided it for them. They grumbled about the food. Manna was all right, but they wanted meat of some kind. No matter what the situation, they were still mental prisoners. As they had been in Egypt, so they were in the wilderness. No matter how good things became, they were never good enough.

They had forgotten all the hardships and slavery in Egypt, and every time they were dissatisfied with Moses' leadership they moaned, "Oh, if only we had stayed in Egypt."

They had forgotten how bad things were; they had no vision for how good things could get. When they had the chance to move into the new land, they were afraid. "There are giants in the land," they cried out. They had seen God's deliverance in the past, but they weren't ready for it in the present.

Finally God said, "Okay, it's time to move out." The Bible doesn't tell us about their attitude, but there's no reason to believe it had changed. I can imagine they cried out, "Let's stay just a little longer. Things aren't good here, but we know how to live in the wilderness. We are afraid to leave this place-we have become used to it."

If you don't like your life, but you won't make the effort to change, you may have a wilderness mentality. If your mind stays filled with negative thoughts, they will keep you in bondage.

However, you can do something about it. You don't have to waste any more time. You can say, "I've dwelt long enough at this mountain. Now I'm going into the Promised Land-the land where I'll live in victory and defeat Satan's plans."

Pray this...

Father God, forgive me for having a wilderness mentality. We are already in the Promised Land with a victorious life, through Jesus Christ. Therefore, Lord I come into the obedience of Your word. I receive the Truth knowing that I am blessed. Father, I thank You for blessings me; giving me unmerited favor, and protecting me. Lord, I Love You. Amen.

Ms. Cocoa Butterfly
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Proud Momma: 1st Grade Science Fair

I know it's super late everyone, but I am so proud of my son right now!

Tonight we finished our first science fair project! I'm so glad! *wipes sweat from brow* trust me when I tell you, that as a science teacher, I have a new found appreciation for all the work these projects take. As a parent, I have a new found appreciation for deadlines along the way because tonight we only had to assemble which was enough! (I'm normally 11th hour doing everything...#justbeinghonest (for my tweeps) LOL! And I have a new appreciation for my sister (not that I didn't before)...she is the best aunty in the whole wide world...she hung in there with us the whole project...kudos to you!!!

Anywho, check out the pics...his aunty helped with the decorating, mommy typed and fussed...fussed and typed...but Dae prepared for his oral presentation. Hopefully a snow day will give us another day to practice! All in all, as much as I don't like the experiences of science fair as a mom and son duo...I am totally happy at the outcome! My son's project is the bombdiggity...he wants to watch everything volcano #gofigure...and I was actually on time with something!
#aintGodGOOD!!!

G'nite!

"One Proud Momma"
Ms. Cocoa Butterfly
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

An Interview with Love...

An Interview with Love…

Over the past few months I have been pondering many things about love and its place and purpose in my life. I’ve gone back over all the lessons I’ve learned personally and through my family and friends, I’ve replayed everything I’ve ever read about love from nursery rhymes as a child to Act like a lady, Think like a man most recently, but more importantly I began to think about God and the things that his word says about Love.

I decided on today’s blog this morning as I was pondering what I would ask “Love” if I had the opportunity to interview it…so I surveyed some of my closest friends, Text buddies, co-workers, BFF, boo, Tweeps, and FB Fam to see what questions were the most burning and I got some surprising questions…and the answers magically appeared to me. I think that is the ultimate answer to any question, seek God and he will give you all understanding!

At any rate, here is my interview with love…***disclaimer***Remember, this is just MY INTERPRETATION of my/the situation and the answers that I received when pondering these questions!!!!!!

Me: I woke up this morning and decided that I needed to make some amends in my life, I wondered where would be the best place to start and you (love) were the first thing that came to mind.

Love: Really?!?

Me: Indeed! I decided that it would prove better for me to seek some answers directly from the source, then to continue on my path searching for answers from self, which obviously hasn’t been working for me.

Love: Well, I wouldn’t go as far as to say that I am not working for you, but go ahead…let me see if I can assist you.

Me: I surveyed some of my closest friends, many of whom I am sure you know very well, and based on some of their questions and my own I would like to begin by saying “Thank you.” One of my closest friends and a major reason for some of my reflection decided that he wouldn’t ask you anything, that he would only thank you. At first, I was a little baffled by his response, I thought to myself that he must have a burning question to ask you, but after a simple moment of reflection, I realized that he was simply acknowledging and accepting everything that you’ve done this far.

Love: You’re welcome!

Me: Ok, so why can’t I help but to feel you?

Love: I am a major part of everyone’s life, or at least I should be. Those that know me come to understand that without me (love) there is nothing. 1st Corinthians chapter 13 Vs 1-3 1If I speak in the tongues[a] of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames,[b] but have not love, I gain nothing.

Me: I get it, love is necessary no matter how bad it hurts, what doesn’t kill us only makes us stronger, so…Why do you hide yourself from those seeking you? Why are you so hard to find?

Love: I don’t hide myself from those seeking me and I am not hard to find at all. At times you chose not to see me for your own selfish reasons; you put man or woman before me and left me to the back, so it isn’t that I am or ever will be hiding from you, but more that you are choosing either not to seek me.

Me: Ok, so…one of my friends wanted to know why you are so terrible and so good at the same time? Or why do you hurt so bad, when you are supposed to be so good?

Love: Well to be honest with you, good and bad co-exist in everything including love. There are going to be good days and there will be bad days. It is my hope that the good will out weigh the bad from time to time, or at least you will begin to understand and appreciate the good days when they come because you learned a lesson from the bad days. There is no Testimony without a TEST!

Me: Makes a lot more sense to me now… people often refer to you (love) as being blind, can you answer or clear up the mystery as to why you are “blind?”

Love: That’s easy…The bible describes me as and I quote (NIV) “ 4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”
I use my blinders so I can stay focused at the task at hand, even if you don’t know what I am doing, I do!

Me: WOW…it is so true that everything we need to live is in the Bible. Ok, well since you are knocking these out so easily, a friend of mine asked “when will I know when I have found the one?/How do you know when it is real?”

Love: To that friend and all the others pondering that question, don’t seek “the one” let me bring them to you. When I bring them to you there will be nothing you can do to get rid of them. What is for you, is for you!

Me: Ok, last question, and I think this is one that many wonder, but are scared to ask, Will you stay forever?

Love: Where would I possibly be going? I have a job to do and that is spread myself. Again, The Bible says…” 8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” 1st Corinthians Chapter 13 vs 8-13

Ultimately, I want you to understand that God is love! When you love as God loves you, I (love) will love you back. Check out and read Deuteronomy 7:9


****** Just my interpretation of my situation*****
It’s 2009 and I am working on me, I hope something good came from my BLOG, if nothing more than to get you to think about love and how important it is to your life. We have to make ourselves happy, we can’t wait on someone or something to do it for us, God has given us everything we need to achieve, if we seek him, we will find the answers to all things unseen.

Peace and Blessings

What do we need most to have a successful relationship?

I was listening to some music this morning, as I normally do, and a question popped into my mind…What does it take to have a successful relationship? For the purposes of this BLOG we will consider a romantic relationship.

I pondered this question for a few moments and I decided that one of the first things I would deem important after GOD, who should be a major part of everything for those that are religious, is the fact that there needs to be two willing participants. No relationship can/will work if one party does not want to be involved in the situation to begin with. I think that it is important for us to make sure that we are both well aware of what we are getting ourselves into before we make a commitment to be someone’s bf/gf, so that we avoid any hurt feelings later.

Now, I know that my first choice isn’t traditional, but I think that may be the foundation that is broken in many relationships from the start. Don’t get me wrong, honesty, trust, friendship, and things along those lines apply as well, but I want to know what you think.

Post your feedback and I will compile a list of the top answers.

I am waiting on you!

Appreciate my ultra short hair By Carina R.

You can not love someone you don't appreciate and you can not appreciate what you do not see. -Bishop Ronnie Crudup, New Horizon Church International

I want to say "thank you" to the one in my life who appreciates me. Me.

He runs his fingers through my ultra short hair, kisses my forehead and tells me he cares.

Kisses my cheek because he misses me.

He misses me when I am not around just on the other side of town. And it's insane because we can talk for hours and he still misses me.

He is my comfort, my strength and my sanity when life is hectic and the air is thick with the stress I breathe.

He holds me, his arms are my sanctuary.

He wants what is best for me. Is gentle with me when I need comfort and support and he tells me the truth especially when it hurts.

And we don't argue we share difference of opinions, strong wills, and strong personalities. We don't fight... we clash, we dispute and debate. Get mad and laugh, talk it over and respect the differences of perspective because that is why we are friends.

Partners.

Friends.

He is sweet sweet sweet. Nice and good to me. Feather downy soft and warm, I feel safe and protected in his presence and in his arms.

Smooth.

He appreciates me because he knows that I gave when I didn't have. He can always have my last because he will always put me first. He was a provider when he didn't have it and I know it hurt.

But he is ALWAYS a man first. His word is his bond. His bond is his word.

He appreciates me. He sees me. And he told me that I am beautiful and unique. He loves my personality and my ultra short hair.

He runs his fingers through my ultra short hair.

--
Shaun~

"Love cares more for others than for self." 1 Corinthians 13:7



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