Tyranny of the Urgent

 Colossians 1:9-14

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For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven’t stopped praying for you. We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God. May you be strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for all endurance and patience, with joy giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light. He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son He loves. We have redemption, the forgiveness of sins, in Him.”

I had to “pause” and pray for so many of you who are faithful servants of our Lord Jesus.  How I wish the pause button would kick in often, but I’m often driven by the Tyranny of the Urgent.  Charles E. Hummel wrote a little book on this subject back in 1994, and it is worth your read.  Let me share a small introduction to “Tyranny of the Urgent.” “Have you ever wished for a thirty-hour day? Surely this extra time would relieve the tremendous pressure under which we live. Our lives leave a trail of unfinished tasks. Unanswered letters, unvisited friends, unread books haunt quiet moments when we stop to evaluate what we have accomplished. We desperately need relief.

But would that longer day solve our problem? Wouldn't we soon be just as frustrated as we are now with our twenty-four-hour allotment? We could hardly escape Parkinson's Principle: Work expands to fill all the available time.

Nor will the passage of time necessarily help us catch up. Children grow in number and age to require more of our time. Greater experience in profession and church brings more demanding assignments. We find ourselves working more and enjoying it less.”  If you keep reading Mr. Hummel has a way to escape the tyranny of the urgent, and it is clear that 99% of us need some help.

Have you given thought to Jesus’ mission?  He had a timeline of only three years to do all that the Father had sent Him to do, and in that He was fully man and fully God His manhood was like ours but without the big problem of sin.  Have no doubt that Jesus experienced the tyranny of the urgent, and it is of interest to look at how He dealt with it.  Once more taken from (Tyranny of the Urgent), “On the night before he died, Jesus made an astonishing claim. In his great prayer of John 17, he said to his Father, "I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do" (v.4).”

And as you have paused to read this paper, let this message from Charles Hummel find a resting place in your spirit.  “What was the secret of Jesus' ministry? We discover a clue in Mark's report of what happened after the very busy day of teaching and healing which we first noted. "Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed" (Mk 1:35). He prayerfully waited for his Father's instructions. Jesus had no divinely drawn blueprint or schedule; he discerned the Father's will day by day in a life of prayer. Because of this, he was able to resist the urgent demands of others and do what was really important for his mission.”

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice