by Tom Wacaster
Having just arrived home
from my latest mission endeavor, I now find myself facing the dubious task of
"catching up" with the backlog of correspondence, reading and filing,
and bills. I have not yet figured out how to keep up with all of these things
when my office is located in East Texas and I am half way around the world
teaching and preaching; to take my office with me is an impossibility, and to
stay at home is not an option. Unfortunately, even when I am home my office
tends to get cluttered with first one thing and then another. Occasionally I
have to take time and clean my desk off so that I can see what I am doing. As I
type this article there are thirteen books laying dormant on my desk in various
stages of readiness, one file full of illustrations, a notebook for keeping
track of activities during my day, several markers and pens, a stack of the
last five months of Reader’s Digest, an unread copy of the Dallas Morning News
(now at least two months old), a scratch pad or two, and pieces of mail (mostly
junk advertisements) all cluttering up the desk. Strangely enough, I do not
remember getting some of those things out, or for what purpose I put them there.
They are just there, interfering with those more important things that I must
get done.
Many a life is nothing
more than a cluttered desk! In a frantic effort to get to those really
important matters, we must first fight the time-wasting, insignificant things
that hinder us at every turn. The tragedy is, most of us never DO get to the
really important things in life. We allow the television, pleasure, self
interests and the pursuit for things (all of which perish with the using), to
distract us from taking care of the most important business of all, preparing
for eternity. Were we to stand back and take an honest look at what has
cluttered up our lives, we might wonder how in the world they got there in the
first place, or what purpose they serve. They are just there! And deep inside
we know we must clear them out of the way and tend to those important matters
while there is still time.
A number of years ago
Walt Disney Studios produced a full length animated movie titled, "Lion
King." The theme song contained some very thought provoking words:
From the time we arrive
on the planet,
And blinking, step into
the sun;
There is more to see
than can ever be seen,
More to do than can ever
be done.
Seeing that we will
never be able to see all there is to see, or do all there is to do, does it not
seem reasonable that we would want to make sure we got the truly important
things done first? Once we recognize this logical and obvious truth, perhaps it
will serve to motivate us to pay attention to that cluttered desk, or whatever
else it might be that hinders us from accomplishing the truly important things
in life.