Wednesday, January 7, 2009

putting God first - kinda

i wanted to quote a passage from Larry Osborne's A Contrarian's Guide to Knowing God for a couple of reasons. . .
1. it has got me re-thinking how i think about prioritizing my life
2. it might encourage you to read the book

In chapter twenty-one entitled "Priority Number One? Why Putting God First Might Be a Bad Idea," the author makes a rather startling confession. . .

"After years of muddling along trying to make God my first priority but never being quite sure what it meant, I finally gave up.

I stopped putting God first.

I put him in the middle.

Imagine a circle or a wheel with a hub and spokes. Now put God in the center hub. Each of the spokes represents an area or activity of life. It might be work, family, church, friends, interaction with your kids or spouse, mowing the lawn, or taking a nap.

Whatever it is, now imagine doing it for God."

(page 211)

i need pictures in my head to go along with my thoughts sometimes. they help me quickly remember whatever it is i want to remember. the "hub" is helping me remember God's place in my life in a way that JOY (Jesus first, Others second, Yourself last) never did.

i think i need to re-think my next tattoo. . .

2 comments:

  1. I've been thinking along the exact same lines...doing everything with God in the middle of it all. That makes a lot more sense to me and why I've always struggled with the concept of "quiet times", especially needing to be first thing in the morning. God doesn't need me to get my time with him in first thing in the morning...he wants to be with me all day long.

    The one place I would disagree with the above quote is that I don't think God wants us to do things "for" him, but rather doing everything WITH him. 'Cause he really just wants to be with us, in relationship with us all day everyday. How freeing is that! Thanks for sharing this!!

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  2. you're welcome and we need to get you your very own copy of the book - you'd really, really like it!

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