We are so much amazed at the many
ways Jesus accomplished His divine assignments. Some of us could
have
been asking the same question: How come Jesus spent only
three years on earth if He intended to change the
world up side down. If we were Jesus, knowing our tendencies
and orientation, we had stayed for another ten or twenty years. The
recurring question is, “Why did He not stay longer to make a greater impact.
We ask this kind of question because of our human tendency to equate length
(or figures, numbers, statistics) with effectiveness. As creatures
equipped with limited knowledge, we are also amazed why Jesus spent His
three full years with the small band of defective, fallen people known
as the twelve (12) disciples? We elaborate further our inquiry and
we wonder why Jesus did not spend most of His time to some more people
than just the twelve at more places than just at Palestine. Let me
propose to you an answer to all these kinds of questions/inquiries--Jesus
Christ, being the best example of a private world that is in order, had
experienced peace in spite of many unfinished tasks because
•He clearly understood His mission and
therefore His priorities.
•He clearly understood His limitations.
•He clearly understood the distinction
between what is URGENT and what is IMPORTANT.
It won’t take us long to realize
that a disorganized private world is manifested in the ways a person uses
his time. Disorganization of one’s private world is revealed
by one’s use of time. Some of the classic symptoms of disorganization
are series of forgotten appointments, tendencies to invest energies in
unproductive tasks, poor quality of intimate, personal relationships with
wife, son, and daughter. Have you experienced not being at ease or
feeling calm because of the many things you want to do and meetings you
want to be. How in the world can we contemplate in peace the many
unfinished tasks that we think we should have done but did not find time
to do?
What caused Jesus to be such an organized person in the aspect
of time management?
I. He clearly understood His mission and therefore His priorities.
I heard about a clever saying that goes this way: If you
don’t know where you’re going, any direction would seem to be right.
Jesus knew exactly why He came. Let’s read John 4:34; 5:30; 6:38.
These verses are saying one thing: To do the will of Him who sent
Him. Usefulness of time is measured base on the sense of mission/purpose.
Jesus’ mission/purpose determined His priorities. Usefulness of time
is tracked down by answering this question: Am I using my time according
to the purpose I am sent or I set for myself? We should not ask how
much how much have we done. The question should be, “Did I do that
which I needed to do based on the mission/purpose that God wanted me to
accomplish as an individual (or church or community)? If we did not,
then there was just motion without promotion nor progress. It is
called inertia. Inertia is a waste of resources most specifically
of time that can’t be grabbed back.
I have a personal confession to
make. There were times that I go to my room to pick up something
I need only to realize that I forgot what I need to get in a matter of
few minutes. Sometimes I need to go back to the place where I was
just to recall what I need. It was a waste of time and energy.
This is exactly what happens when you go through life without a piece of
mission or purpose. When you get somewhere, you won’t know why you’re
there in the first place. Warning to hear: You won’t possess
your time unless you have a sense of mission or purpose within you.
One possible thing that may happen when you don’t possess your
time because you don’t have that sense of purpose is that you will come
under the influence of dominant people in the world. Without your
sense of mission or purpose in your life, you will find your time at the
mercy of anyone who lives aimlessly; of one who kills time; one who just
waits for either eating or sleeping time. When you allow your time
to be dominated by people whom you cannot refuse, you may find God and
your family being cheated by the time with those dominant people who have
not realized that God has given you a mission or a purpose.
We can still hear the cry of those “dominant
people” who was looking for Jesus. After Jesus attended to His fixed
and nonnegotiable appointment with the heavenly Father, Mark 1:37 says,
“Everyone is looking for you.” Verse 38 says, “Let us go somewhere
else to the towns nearby.” The Lord of time knew exactly His mission
or purpose. Was Jesus insensitive to the needs of people? He
was not! He clearly undrstood His mission and therefore His priorities.
II. He clearly understood His limitations.
When Jesus came to earth as the incarnate
Son of God, He imposed some kind of limitations to Himself. Not to
believe that Jesus can impose self-limitation is to believe that He is
not all powerful. In the incarnation, Jesus had imposed some kind
of limitations NOT SO MUCH ON THINGS THAT HE CAN DO BUT MORE ON THINGS
THAT HE SHOULD NOT DO. He knew exactly the very scope or extent of
His task.
First, Jesus believed that He should
make prayer a fixed item. He knew very well what we usually
forget.: that time must be properly budgeted for the fathering of inner
strength and resolve in order to compensate for one’s weaknesses when spiritual
warfare begins. (MacDonald). In Mark 1:35, we were told
about the thing that Jesus understood to be a fixed item in His daily life
realizing that He cannot do the will of Him who sent Him. That fixed,
non negotiable item is prayer. We all struggle in prayer. We usually
find no time or quality time to pray though we realize how limited we are
to what we can accomplish. We surely are all budgeting our finances
especially in times of crisis. We are extra careful to do any unnecessary
expenditure. We don’t want to run out of money especially on items
that are matters of life and death. As people who are committed to
God’s plan of stewardship, our financial priority would be Tithe &
offerings, food, house (in case we don’t own it yet) and utilities.
This kind of expenses is called FIXED EXPENDITURE. After we have
budgeted the fixed expenditures, then we allot some money for what could
be considered discretionary expenditures, namely those things that are
more wants than needs like eating at a favorite restaurant, buying an appliance
that could make a job or work or life easier and other things. If money
is being budgeted because of the limited supply, time should also be budgeted.
We need, therefore, to understand the difference between the fixed and
discretionary aspects of our time.If our private world is so disorganized
because we did not allot or budget for the gathering of inner strength,
let me suggest that you should move your prayer and Bible study time from
discretionary item--what you would like to do--to fixed item--what you
must do. This change of perspective will surely make a big help and
will solve the problem we usually hear, “No time to do the habits of the
heart because I was in a hurry.” For some, this would mean that they
will have to bring their sleeping hours under discretionary item in order
to quiet the scream of their private world. Jesus understood His
limitations. He brought prayer and communion with His Father under
fixed items. This could be a decision God wants you to do this point
of time.Considering our limitations as human being, we must know our
rhythms of maximum effectiveness. This means that there are various
tasks that we can accomplish best under certain conditions. As I
evaluate my work and study habits, I found out that my maximum effectiveness
of composing and writing down a Sunday message starts on Thursday and ends
up on Saturday evening. But the most is Saturday afternoon.
My Saturday afternoon is so preoccupied with my Sunday message that I will
find it too difficult to talk to someone because I know I’ll be preaching
the following day except if I’m planning to preach a rerun. However,
I am aptly effective to perform my office and school work at the first
half of the week. Knowing my rhythms of maximum effectiveness, I
can overcome many of my limitations.
III. He clearly understood the distinction between what is URGENT and what is IMPORTANT.
Lately, I have read an article, a devotional material that says, “We could hardly escape Parkinson’s Principle: Work expands to fill all the available time. When we stop long enough to think about it, it is basically a problem of priorities. An experienced factory manager once said, “Your greatest danger is letting the urgent things crowd out the important. We live in constant tension between the urgent and the important tasks.When we are ignorant of our mission and limitations, we will easily surrender to the demands of all emergencies simply because we don’t possess time. This means that we will only attend to urgent matters until we don’t realize that the important matters have been totally forsaken and even neglected. And as a result, our private world is crumbling down. It is so disorganized because we only listen to the urgent matters and ignore to do that which is important. This had never happened to Jesus because His frequent consultation to the Father’s will made His work very organized. In John 11, Jesus received an urgent message about His friend Lazarus who was very sick at that time. What do we do when we feel that the URGENT is crawling within us? We try our best to stop it immediately. When Jesus heard about the urgent message about the condition of His friend, Lazarus, He tried to discern the important things based on God’s perspective. Where Jesus get this discernment? From His private world which was in order. How come His private world while on earth was always in order? Because He knew His mission. He understood His limitations and because of this, He was always consulting His Father about His will. At that time Jesus discerned that the urgent thing is to heal His friend, Lazarus, but the important thing is to reveal that the Son of God could not only heal but raise someone from the dead. By distinguishing what is important in our lives and quieting the urgent, we will be able to recapture the many hours we’ve misplaced.
Conclusion:
Nothing substitutes for knowing that on this day, at this hour,
in this place, we are doing the will of our Father in heaven. Only,
then, can we contemplate in peace so many unfinished tasks.
