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 Matthew 6:25-34
The other night I went to see a friend perform in a cabaret. I was sitting at a little table near the front when, just before the performance started a woman asked, "May I sit next to you?" I nodded, she sat down, we shook hands and exchanged names. Then the announcement came to turn off all cell phones. As she was turning off her cell phone she said, "I've got to tell you that I'm really shaken up inside. I just got a call that a dear friend of mine died."
"You know," she went on, "something like this causes one to think of how important it is to live in the moment. You never really know what is going to happen." And for that brief moment this woman was rethinking her priorities -- what really matters the most.
Priorities are fascinating and important. We all have them but the question is, do we choose them or do they end up choosing us? Of course, it is always better if we do the choosing, but that isn't the end of it. Once our priorities are chosen even then they are never solidly in place because life is a dynamic, in motion, always changing. Today is different from yesterday. Tomorrow will not be the same as today. As we grow older and experience more, we learn more and our priorities are continually shifting.
I remember the time I first had a major illness and my mortality was challenged. You can imagine what happened to me. I did a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn. Life, for me, had been full speed ahead -- head down, blinders on, full speed ahead. Facing the possibility of death made me realize -- "What a minute! I am missing out on my life!"
I had heard -- without heeding -- the phrase "Take time to smell the roses," with its reminder to occasionally live in the moment. Now I began to especially appreciate my family and my friendships. Suddenly I became aware of how vivid the colors around me were, and how great and wonderful life really is. This awareness has never left me. My illness permanently changed me.
When my predecessor, Norman Vincent Peale, was at the age I am now, he had all the mental and spiritual energy that he'd ever had, yet physically he could not do the same things he had done before -- which I?m beginning to feel now myself. I remember watching him as he dealt with having diminished physical stamina. I watched him consciously pace himself to conserve his energies. I remember him talking to me about priorities and how he would have to shift some of his responsibilities and focus on the things he could do best and the things that were most important to his ministry. As a result he continued speaking and preaching into his ninety-fourth year.
One day when I was in my early thirties I was having lunch with a very successful attorney who had become a role model for me. His name was Homer Surbeck. I was eager to know how to be effective and successful in life, so I asked, "Homer, can you tell me what is most important to success?" Without hesitation he said, "Self-discipline." At that time I was not very disciplined. My journey since that time has been a continuing struggle to be more disciplined.
All of our lives are like this -- adjusting and changing priorities as we go along, as we experience more and more, so that we might become more effective and balanced, living better lives and doing better with what we have been given.
And what is the higher wisdom about priorities? What do the scriptures say? What is the divine position on priorities? Jesus spells it out very clearly, I think, in His Sermon on the Mount, in that section we often call the "worry section" or the "anxiety section," where He teaches us about letting go of unnecessary concerns.
"You're worrying about what you're going to wear. You're worrying about what you're going to eat. You're worrying about this, you're worrying about that, you?re worrying about all kinds of things you really don't need to worry about." And He gives you the reason why this is so -- and please hear me when I say this because this teaching really works. Jesus said, "Seek first the kingdom of heaven and God?s righteousness, and everything that you need will be given to you." If you seek God?s will and God?s righteousness, if you seek the things that are most important to God, you will find that every need you have that really is an important need will be granted to you. This is the promise of God.
Jesus said, "Unless you be as a little child, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven." What are the qualities of a little child? Simplicity, innocence and spontaneity. Simplicity, innocence, spontaneity...
If we let our priorities be guided by our purest and most childlike qualities, we will emphasize peace, faith, love and forgiveness in our lives. We will have faith that God loves us and will take care of us.
Throughout the Sermon on the Mount Jesus encourages us to nurture and trust our most childlike qualities. If we continually return to what is simplest, purest and most loving in our natures we will be closest to living in the kingdom of heaven, and our priorities will be the most Godly. This is a lifelong struggle, to return again and again to what is purest in ourselves when making decisions and setting priorities, and it is also the most reliable way of filling our lives with light and growth.
I recently discovered this story of a Cherokee elder teaching his grandchildren some important lessons they would need to understand in order to have a good life.
"A fight is going on inside me. It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One wolf is evil -- he is fear, anger, envy, sorrow, greed, regret, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, competition, superiority and ego. The other is good -- he is love, peace, benevolence, joy, generosity, hope, humility, serenity, kindness, friendship, empathy, truth, sharing, compassion and faith."
"This same fight is going on inside you, and inside every other person, too."
[The grandchildren] thought about it for a minute and then one child asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"
The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."
Wonderful picture... Which of the wolves will win -- the good one or the evil one? The one that you feed.
There is a wonderful story by the great Russian writer Leo Tolstoy about an emperor who feels that if he has the answer to three questions his life would be in perspective, his priorities would be right, and all would be well for the rest of his life. The three questions were:
- What is the best time to do each thing?
- Who are the most important people to work with?
- What is the most important thing to do at all times?
He sent these questions out to his kingdom and he got hundreds and hundreds of responses, but none of them satisfied him. None of them met him at his heart?s need. So he decided to consult an old hermit who lived in the mountains and who was said to be an enlightened man. The hermit was known to refuse to meet with the wealthy and powerful, so the emperor disguised himself and went alone up the mountain to find him.
The emperor stayed the night with the hermit, who kept deflecting his questions, and during that time through a series of events the emperor proved his worthiness to the hermit, and the events that transpired served to illustrate, as often happens in these tales, the answer to the three questions:
- Remember that there is only one important time and that is Now. The present moment is the only time over which we have dominion.
- The most important person is always the person with whom you are, who is right before you, for who knows if you will have dealings with any other person in the future.
- The most important pursuit is making that person, the one standing at your side, happy, for that alone is the pursuit of life.
Let's put this into the present situation. What is the best time for me to do what I'm doing? The best time is now, because it's the only time I have. Who is the most important person for me to work with? The most important person for me to be with right now is you. What is the most important task that I have? That is to bless you, so that, as a result of our being together, something good will have happened for you.
When you take these three questions and you put Jesus in the midst of them, you have an exact description of what He did. He was always in the present, in the moment, as if each moment was the only moment He would have.
The most important person? Was not every person He was with the most important person in the world? He was absolutely present for them.
And the most important task for Him was to bless them. And indeed He blessed them.
Our experience of being in the moment, being with another person with absolute attention, and blessing that person, will be enhanced if we will also make gratitude a part of that experience. We didn't make the world; it was made before we got here, and it is here for us. So look around every day, every moment of every day -- "Thank you, God, thank you, God," -- and then thank other people as well. Make gratitude one of your highest priorities.
So as we seek to rethink and reset our priorities, the more the tilt of our lives leans toward Godly things, the more fulfilled and happy will our lives be.
When I think about setting priorities, sometimes I think about a rather unusual wedding I performed a number of years ago. A member of this church, a middle-aged woman who had never been married, became engaged to a widower, a tall, dapper, wonderful man. They wanted me to perform the ceremony. Her fiancé had picked June 6th as the date for their wedding.
On the day of the ceremony I watched him walk down the hall toward the prayer chapel, where the service was to take place, with a World War II helmet under his arm. It was as worn and dirty as if it had just come out of a battle. He held it up and showed me two holes in the front. "I landed in Normandy on June 6th, 1944," he said. "I was a physician in the third wave of landings. Two bullets came at me and this helmet saved my life. I have been grateful for this helmet for all the time I have been given, and I have kept it with me ever since."
"I was so sad and despairing after my wife died. Now Charlotte and I are going to get married. I am grateful to her for bringing me back to life, as I received a new life in 1944." And he put the helmet into my hands. I took it and placed it on the altar as a symbol of gratitude for life.
Rethink and reset your priorities. May I encourage you to look to the scripture where, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, "Seek first the kingdom of heaven and everything that you need will be given to you." And then, as you do this, live your life with gratitude. "Thank you, God, thank you." Let us pray:
Lord, for the blessings of life and the challenge You give us, for the choices you give us to set priorities, may we set our priorities high and, Lord, lead us to fullness of life as we love one another and are grateful to You for all good things. In Christ's name we pray. AMEN |
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