Tyranny of the urgent

Early into our marriage, my wife and I participated in a newlywed small group at our church. The leaders of our group were a couple who had been married for more than 30 years, which seemed like a lifetime to a group in their 20s. Once a month our group would gather to discuss the Bible and how to build a God honoring life and marriage. One evening our conversation involved a booklet printed in 1967 titled "Tyranny of the Urgent" by Charles E. Hummel.

Hummel's central idea is that the urgent matters of life can crowd out what is important. Important matters are the most life giving, have the biggest impact, and take the longest investment. Important matters are worked on in the immediate but rarely completed today.

Urgent matters, contrary to important ones, always demand an immediate response. Hummel writes, "urgent tasks call for instant action -- endless demands pressure every hour and day." Decades before you were accessible 24 hours a day people were struggling with multiple demands for their attention.

Proverbs 24:7 (NLT) echoes this essay; "Do your planning and prepare your fields before building your house." The proverb's counsel is to strategize your approach to the work and operations that are essential. The work, which might not be completed for months, and then build. A house matters. But a long-term investment over a short-term gain matters more. The important must always exceed what is urgent.

Living for the important verses the urgent demands that you identify the most important matters of your life. Then you must prioritize what is important. There will always be urgent issues. Water heaters will quit. Tires will go flat. But if you never clarify what is important the urgent will wreak tyranny in your life.

As a Christian spending time fostering my spiritual life through daily Bible reading and prayer are important investments. I want to sit with my wife when neither of us can remember our names; so it is important that I sit with her today. I want my grown children to visit us with their children; so it is important we spend time together today. Important must have priority over urgent.

Important matters are an investment. Urgent matters a withdrawal. Build great life investment by stocking away more of what is important over the urgent.