Clarity

Stephen Covey said: “Things which matter most, must never be at the mercy of things which matter least".

Think about that, the things that matter most must never be sacrificed or moved over for any reason. There should be no conflicts in our life that make choosing the things which don't matter even a possibility. There should be no competition for our time, money or talent. The things in our lives that matter most should get our best, every time. Our lives should promote and make it easy for us to focus on and choose those things that matter most.

One wise guy simplified it all when he said it like this: "The Main thing is to keep the main thing, the main thing"

Look at the wisdom of Solomon as he clarifies this struggle: Ecclesiastes 7:13 (NLT) Notice the way God does things; then fall into line. Don't fight the ways of God, for who can straighten out what he has made crooked?

That sounds so simple doesn’t it? Find out what matters most and then - do it, live it, learn it, enjoy it, practice it, fund it, dream it, BECOME IT. Find out God's ways and get your life in line. Makes sense – Right? Sounds easy enough – right? On a piece of paper – the answer is yes. As I write it right now - It sounds so simple. But we all know it’s not.

The truth of the matter is this - all of us have found ourselves at one time or another fighting against God’s ways. We've found ourselves letting those things which don't matter very much at all to take us away from what really does matter. Now, not on purpose of course, because why would anyone purposely fight against the ways of God? The answer is – because we don’t know that’s what we're doing.

The reason it’s difficult to –“keep the main thing the main thing” is because we’re not exactly sure what the “main thing” really is. The reason we struggle to focus our time and energy on those areas that matters most is – we’re not clear what it is that “matters most”.

And the primary reason for all that confusion is:

• We’ve created way too complicated lives.
• We’ve allowed conflicting priorities to exist side by side.
• We’ve let the uncertainty of what we don’t know cloud out the clarity of what we do know.

Why do people choose things that matter least at the expense of those that matter most? The reason is they lack clarity.

To Illustrate this, let me make it real personal – This week My wife and I will be celebrating 15 years of marriage. What do you thing is the most important thing for me to do this week? If I get the opportunity to go golfing – My answer should be? If President Obama calls to fly me out to Washington DC to hear my opinion on the direction of the country, my answer should be? That’s called clarity. And, that is what we all need.

The answer to all the uncertainty and confusion in our lives is clarity. Clarity is what gives us the confidence to do what we need to do. To say what we need to say and to choose what we need to choose. When clarity is absent there will be fear and doubt in every step. When clarity is clouded or buried under a pile of obligations and regulations, we make bad decisions. We do dumb things that we look back on with regret.

So no matter how hard it is - get clarity in your life. Do whatever you have to do to make your life match your priorities. Then at least you will spend your time doing what you have decided matters most to you. And from there God can begin the work of helping you to get those priorities in line with His will.