I have become a person of lists. I have a task list that I keep track of daily which lets me know what I have to get done that day. I also have several calendars of which each correspond to a different aspect of my life.
Why all of these lists and calendars? Well, I have so many things going on in my life at any one given moment that I'm afraid I'm going to forget. I have bad dreams sometimes about waking up on Sunday morning and realizing I haven't prepared a sermon! If only that old adage "just open your mouth and the Spirit will fill it" was both scriptural and true for today's time!
Sometimes as I look over these lists I can't believe what all I have to keep track of. I have visits to make, I have lessons to prepare, I have a radio program to record. I have to write these blog posts! I have to mow the grass, clean our vehicles, and various other tasks around the house. I have to pay the power bill. The list goes on.
I wonder sometimes if other people's lives are like this. Is your life like this? Do you have lists of things that have to be accomplished? Do you also spend part of the time that you are working on one task thinking about what you have to do with the next task?
Oh, and what about when people try to "change your plans"? How do you react? You have a schedule, after all! How uncaring for them to not be considerate of all of the things that you have to get done, right?
Sometimes I have to stop and think long and hard about what Paul writes to the church in Philippi. In Philippians 2:4 we read the following:
"Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others."
That word for "look" means "to take aim at, consider". Now how does that make you feel when you look at it? It's so easy to be consumed with I or me and what I have to get finished. Where on my fancy calendars am I looking out for the interests of others?
Paul also wrote this to the church in Corinth:
"Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor." (1 Corinthians 10:24, ESV)
Now realize what Paul is saying: I have things that I must look after and responsibilities (cf. Gal. 6:5), but my work doesn't stop there. God clearly wants me to be concerned with the welfare of those who are around me. In the immediate context that means my wife, and someday, my children. That means your husband or your wife for you, too! It also means my brothers and sisters in Christ (for example, see Hebrews 3:13).
Will you make space in your busy schedule for those who need you, in order to consider them? It may mean [collective gasp] taking some things off of that calendar! Let's do some real quick simple math: if you, and you alone are looking out for your interests and welfare, how many are looking out for you? What if we could all consider each other, then how many would be looking out for you and I?
"And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works," – (Hebrews 10:24, ESV)
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