Purpose Requires Priorities

A few years ago, I heard someone say, “You can do anything, but you cannot do everything.” I don't remember who said it, but I remember not particularly liking it. Like many people, I have a lot of things I want to accomplish. There are goals for my career, my family, my finances, my health, my relationship with God, businesses I want to build, places I want to visit, books I want to read, and ideas that occasionally seem brilliant at 11:30 at night. The problem is that there are still only 24 hours in a day.

At some point, we have to choose, and perhaps that is one of the more difficult parts of living on purpose: purpose requires priorities.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 tells us, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.” I have read that Scripture many times, but lately I have been paying more attention to the word season. Everything does not belong in every season. There may be something God has placed on your heart that is absolutely worth doing, but that doesn't necessarily mean it needs to be done right now. There may be an opportunity that is genuinely good, but accepting it could take you away from something that is more important. This is where wisdom becomes necessary.

Jesus modeled this remarkably well. There were always people who wanted something from Him: people wanted healing, crowds wanted teaching, the disciples needed direction, and religious leaders wanted answers, yet Jesus never seemed controlled by the urgency around Him. In Mark 1, after an incredibly busy period of ministry, Jesus got up early and went away to pray. When the disciples eventually found Him, they said, “Everyone is looking for you!” I imagine many of us would have heard that and immediately returned to the crowd—everyone is looking for me, I must be important, I must be needed, I better get back. Instead, Jesus essentially told them it was time to move on to the next place because that was what He had come to do.

That challenges me because Jesus did not allow people's expectations to determine His priorities; His purpose determined His priorities. I wonder how often we get this backwards. We allow emails to determine our priorities, our jobs determine them, social media determines them, other people's emergencies determine them, and sometimes even our own ambition determines them. Then, after everything else has received its portion, we give whatever remains to the things we claim matter most. God gets the leftover time, our spouse gets the leftover attention, our children get the leftover energy, our health gets addressed when something goes wrong, and the dream we have been talking about for five years gets another promise that we will “get serious about it soon.” I am speaking to myself here as much as anyone.

The truth is, priorities are not really demonstrated by what we say is important; they are demonstrated by what consistently receives our time, attention, energy and resources. That can be uncomfortable to admit. If I say my health is important but never make time to exercise, I have made a choice. If I say my family is important but work receives the best of me every day, I have made a choice. If I say God is first but I consistently find thirty minutes to scroll and struggle to find ten minutes to pray, I have made a choice. Not necessarily an intentional choice, but a choice nonetheless.

This doesn't mean every area of life receives equal time, because I don't think balance means dividing our lives into six perfectly equal pieces. Some seasons demand more from us than others. There will be seasons when work requires more, seasons when family needs more, seasons when our health needs attention, and seasons when God may ask us to build something that requires unusual sacrifice. The important question is whether we know what season we are in. Maybe that is the exercise for this week: look at Faith, Fitness, Family, Focus, Finance and Friendship and ask yourself, “What deserves my greatest attention in this season?” Not forever, right now.

Then ask an even harder question: “What will I need to say no to so I can say yes to it?” Because eventually, purpose becomes practical. It shows up on the calendar, affects what we spend, determines what we decline, and changes how we spend Saturday morning. It may even disappoint people who expected access to us. There will always be more opportunities than capacity, and wisdom is knowing which ones belong to you. You can do many things in this life; just don't become so busy doing everything that you never get around to doing the thing God actually called you to do.

Purpose requires priorities. Choose yours on purpose.

Best wishes,

L.B.