Discussion/Devotional thought of the day:

Back in the day, there was a song on Christian radio that had the following lyrics

“it may be the Devil, and it may be the Lord, but you gotta serve somebody!”

Yesterday I wrote a little about priorities, then during the day, I started looking at all the demands for my time this fall.  I’ll have to head to St Louis at the end of the month, then Palm Springs for a three day meeting in September, then another one day meeting in October, plus all the normal meetings, all the normal stresses, balancing in the needs of my church (writing a new Adult Sunday School class ) with my family, and with other obligations.  The comes Advent and Christmas, and planning for those.  Some even say I should make sure I have time for myself, and too look after my health.

It’s easy for me to start evaluating the schedule demands, and list this event as more important than that event, these people not as important as those.  Now my evaluations are more intuitive than analytically, that’s how I operate.  Yet even as I do these things, my blog from yesterday keeps simmering, and I wonder, am I listening to God in these evaluations?  Am I considering His priorities, His desires, His needs.  Will my calendar reveal where my heart lies, and is it with Him?  Or am I acting more like a manager who doesn’t have a close relationship with God, if any?

How we set our priorities both on a daily basis and on a larger scale reveals who we serve, and is it God, or is it some other god?   Do we dare question our own analysis – do we question our own motives, and ask God to use us, whereever He would lead us?  Do we recognize that our schedule is one that is God’s as well, as He walks with us throughout our day?

Ultimately, our schedules may not change when we make God our first priority, when we realize that our day is one long appointment with Him.  We will still have the same people to deal with, the same schedule demands, the same hard decisions, the same vocations and occupations.  Yet if we see the day as one we spend with Him, in all those places, with all those people, we will look at the day differently…each appointment a divine appointment, each block of time has a divine significance.

It’s not so much using our time wisely, for personally I don’t have enough wisdom to do that.  But I can let God’s wisdom prevail – and walk with Him as a son shadows his dad on “take your kid to work day”

We cry out “Lord Have Mercy” then step back in awe as He does!