Busyness.

The number one distraction in my life.
How easy is it to fill your schedule with work, school, church, ministry, family, and friends? How easy is it to let the commitments pile up until you don't know where exactly your sanity went? How easily do we let every activity throw itself at us, until we barely have time left to sleep?

Easy. Too easy.

I've heard it said that you can tell a person's priorities by looking at their checkbook(of course, this assumes that they balance their checkbook). I think you can also tell by looking at the things they clear off their calendar for. What undoubtedly, every week, do you do, no matter what? What is there no hesitation in your mind about clearing your schedule for?

I've found it interesting to watch my close friends over the past few months, with the insanity of school in full swing. To see what they have committed to daily making time for. To seriously think about what I daily commit to making time for. My job is a given, and all other activities are scheduled around that. But before work, if I am not up on time because I was up too late the night before or didn't sleep well, what's the first thing I chop out of my daily schedule? For me it has come down to a) my quiet time, or b) my workout. My time spent in the Word not only refreshes my heart, it starts me off with a much better attitude. And, God is aware when I don't go to the gym, because without fail all my patients on those days that I "skip" working out require heavy manual stretching or massage. So I feel like I did something physically challenging either way!

We are barraged with many, many ways to spend our time. The TV, computer, cell phones, housework, and any extra activities are thrown at us wherever we turn. And when we get caught up in all the extra commitments, we miss out on the things that are of eternal significance. Will doing such and such an activity allow those around me to see Christ? Will working out 5 days/week matter when I reach Heaven?

Will spending the extra 10 minutes with a patient who is having a difficult day, cutting into my lunch, go unnoticed by the King? Will He turn His back on us when we invest our time in relationships that glorify and honor Him? Will He not bless us for giving Him first priority?

Nothing we do to honor Him goes unnoticed.

He wants us to put Him and what is important to Him first. He wants our devotion, the number one, permanently inked place on our calendar. To have His priorities, to Love Him, Love His word, and Love His people.

The enemy will do everything he can think of to have us scratch the things that matter to God off of our life calendar. But we have the choice to say no to the busyness. To make time for the things of lasting importance. And to ink His holy name on every page of our daily planner.