In college we were required as freshman to read a little booklet called "tyranny of the urgent" by Charles E. Hummel. When I say little ...I mean it. It sells on Amazon in a five pack. That is confidence! "Take 5 they're small!" I think the purpose was that we would learn to be better students as result of the lessons this book taught. I don't think I learned the lesson then.
Anyway... I've been thinking about that phrase. Tyranny is defined as "oppressive power" and "
: a rigorous condition imposed by some outside agency or force". Urgent is defined "calling for immediate attention".
Our lives are chock full of urgent things. Mine is no exception. There is something every moment of every day that will require immediate attention. We think. I have come to believe it truly goes back to the old saying " failure to plan on your part does not constitute a crisis on mine." So frequently I find myself running ragged to complete something because of someone else's perceived emergency. Just as often I find myself neglecting my own things because I have given time to something
urgent. I find there are things that are not urgent that feel urgent. I am finding myself drawn in and overwhelmed by the myriad of details. Frequently the urgent time thing is my own given in to when i should be paying attention to something else. This is not to say the urgent things have no value. Often they do have value. But perhaps they are not the most valuable thing
now. I have run into this repeatedly over the past months of blogging silence. The needing to decide what has the greatest urgency and value - It overwhelms me.
I tend to be an immediate person. If it effects the next 3 minutes, 2 hours, 24 hours... I am working vigorously on it. When the task is further out.... my attitude is lackadaisical "oh I'll get to that... there is time." Then a mass sewing frenzy in the 2 nights before a living history event, or a madly cleaning berries to get them put away because the whim took me to go and pick them TODAY. Berries were urgent - " the season is almost over I must go get them
NOW!" Never mind that I should have been cleaning out a room to prepare for the impending project in there.
Today I think of the blur that life becomes when I allow myself to be yanked this way and that with the tide of thought and "urgency" and I feel convicted. Perhaps there is a difference between living flexible and living blurry. Time spent daily with the Father has been not so intentional lately. I feel the effects of my lack of focus on Him as the tide of the urgent sweeps me away. That moment has come where I realize I must allow Him to define what is urgent and what is not, what should be planned ahead for and what can be done later.
Lord, Here is my day. Direct my waywardness to the tasks that you define as important. Draw me into your will, your path, your intent, that I may be used by you to accomplish your plan. Caite girl
Today is Saturday. It is snowing. Large flakes flowing from the sky in a seeming river of white. They again cover everything. Coating the world in a blanket of whiteness. Looking out my window the world seems quiet and serene.
We had a blessed time together, my girls and I, on those two snow days. Legos, piano, friends, books, princesses, & barbies. On top of all that I got stuff done. I will talk about that more in tomorrow's post.
