Did You Get Everything Done Today That You Wanted To?

That may seem like a silly question, and I imagine that a good 90% of people would have to answer "No".  I just finished reading a devotional entitled "How Can Reflecting on Heaven Help Me Escape the "Tyranny of the Urgent:?"

Now, when I first read the title, I had little to no doubt what it was talking about.  Like most of you, I never seem to have enough time to get everything done that I intended to do each day.  Most days I feel like I go ninety miles per hour all day and at the end of the day, usually close to midnight, I look around and think of all the things that I "meant" to get done - but didn't.  This brings on a mixture of feelings - depression, failure, disappointment in myself just to name a few.

In the devotional that I read there was an excerpt from a book, "The City of God", written by St. Augustine, then translated and published in 1958.  This excerpt explains St. Augustine's view on the meaning of resting on the seventh day and the bliss of the Sabbath.  We can all agree that when Jesus returns and we are united with God in heaven, that will be our ultimate Sabbath.  But reading this excerpt from that book brings out some questions to ponder, as pointed out at the end of the devotional.

What can we do now to bring rest into our lives?  The devotional suggests that we make a list of all the things we "think" are dominating our time and then, reviewing the list, determine which of these items are actually necessary.  It suggests that we should simplify our lives as much as possible.  It also points out that the urgent is not always important.  It concludes by stating that we should not try to make ourselves do what we cannot do.

In conclusion, I have a suspicion that this devotional is very much correct.  I suspect that if I make a list of what all I feel "has" to be done each day for a week, then review that list, I will find that there are things that are not earth shattering if they are not accomplished.  I also suspect that if I actually keep a log of my activities each of these days, I will then find much more "wasted" time than I would like to admit.

So - the Tyranny of Urgency?  In case you are still wondering - the tyranny of urgency is simply the pressure we put on ourselves by thinking there are a certain number of things we absolutely must accomplish each day without actually determining if all those things are all that important.

The "How Can Reflecting on Heaven Help Me Escape the Tyranny?  If we make our lists, and while reviewing them, determine if each thing is actually important, we need to realize that many times what we think is of great importance is actually something we can simply turn over to God.  However, when we, ourselves, try to play God - and we all tend to do that from time to time - thinking we can handle everything on our own - we find that we are attempting to do or control things that we should not have been trying to do or control to begin with.

So - how can we simplify our lives?  Accomplish only those things we can actually control.  Turn over to God all those things we actually have no control over.  Trust God to take care of those.

Let me know if you ever have to deal with the Tyranny of Urgency, and if so, how do you deal with it?