1.22-Big Rocks First. Some things never.

 1.22.

Dr. Steven R. Covey,
First Things First

One day this expert was speaking to a group of business students and, to drive home a point, used an illustration I’m sure those students will never forget. After I share it with you, you’ll never forget it either.

As this man stood in front of the group of high-powered over-achievers he said, "Okay, time for a quiz." Then he pulled out a one-gallon, wide-mouthed mason jar and set it on a table in front of him. Then he produced about a dozen fist-sized rocks and carefully placed them, one at a time, into the jar.

When the jar was filled to the top and no more rocks would fit inside, he asked, "Is this jar full?" Everyone in the class said, "Yes." Then he said, "Really?" He reached under the table and pulled out a bucket of gravel. Then he dumped some gravel in and shook the jar causing pieces of gravel to work themselves down into the spaces between the big rocks.

Then he smiled and asked the group once more, "Is the jar full?" By this time the class was onto him. "Probably not," one of them answered. "Good!" he replied. And he reached under the table and brought out a bucket of sand. He started dumping the sand in and it went into all the spaces left between the rocks and the gravel. Once more he asked the question, "Is this jar full?"

"No!" the class shouted. Once again he said, "Good!" Then he grabbed a pitcher of water and began to pour it in until the jar was filled to the brim. Then he looked up at the class and asked, "What is the point of this illustration?"

One eager beaver raised his hand and said, "The point is, no matter how full your schedule is, if you try really hard, you can always fit some more things into it!"

"No," the speaker replied, "that’s not the point. The truth this illustration teaches us is: If you don’t put the big rocks in first, you’ll never get them in at all."

What are the big rocks in your life? A project that you want to accomplish? Time with your loved ones? Your faith, your education, your finances? A cause? Teaching or mentoring others? Remember to put these Big Rocks in first or you’ll never get them in at all.

Big Rocks.

Love of God and people.  Loving God includes loving people.  These two things go together.  We cannot love God and not obey His basic command to love people.

To live sacrificially for our spouses, children, parents and others family members in Jesus.  Respect your mother and father.  Treat your spouse and children with kindness.

To live sacrificially for fellow believers in need.  Helping people of faith from all nations and races.  Meeting basic human needs of food and shelter.  Having compassion for people in trouble.  Being a servant.  Fairness. Compassion. Commitment.

To avoid debilitating self-criticism.  I will not be a self-accuser.

To know that our God is love and He loves us beyond our own imagination because He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus, to save us.  He came in the flesh born and laid in a manger and died on a cross.  He was raised from the grave and ascended to heaven. 

Gravel.

To carefully weigh and examine what religious people tell you; to not be naïve, but real about lying preachers and other religious bullies and bigots.

Sand.

Being alert to one’s conscience, but willing to be re trained in the conscience.  Excellence and order on work and honest bookkeeping.

Water.

Following a religious, family tradition that causes no one to stumble.   Enjoying food and feasts with joy and moderation.

There is no room in the jar for some things.

Fear.  Hate.  You cannot hate the person you see and love the God who made the person you see.  Murder. Adultery. Fornication. Theft. Lies. Cussing.  Greed. 

Arrogance, conceit, carrying special titles that elevate one man or woman over another.  Trying to be the Savior of people, only God is the Savior.  Playing word games with religious hairsplitting that only religious insiders understand.

Nitpicking judgment of others.

Matthew 15.

15 ^1-2 After that, Pharisees and religion scholars came to Jesus all the way from Jerusalem, criticizing, “Why do your disciples play fast and loose with the rules?”

^3-9 But Jesus put it right back on them. “Why do you use your rules to play fast and loose with God’s commands? God clearly says, ‘Respect your father and mother,’ and, ‘Anyone denouncing father or mother should be killed.’ But you weasel around that by saying, ‘Whoever wants to, can say to father and mother, What I owed to you I’ve given to God.’ That can hardly be called respecting a parent. You cancel God’s command by your rules. Frauds! Isaiah’s prophecy of you hit the bull’s-eye:

These people make a big show of saying the right thing,
    but their heart isn’t in it.
They act like they’re worshiping me,
    but they don’t mean it.
They just use me as a cover
    for teaching whatever suits their fancy.”

^10-11 He then called the crowd together and said, “Listen, and take this to heart. It’s not what you swallow that pollutes your life, but what you vomit up.”

¹² Later his disciples came and told him, “Did you know how upset the Pharisees were when they heard what you said?”
^13-14 Jesus shrugged it off. “Every tree that wasn’t planted by my Father in heaven will be pulled up by its roots. Forget them. They are blind men leading blind men. When a blind man leads a blind man, they both end up in the ditch.”
¹⁵ Peter said, “I don’t get it. Put it in plain language.”
^16-20 Jesus replied, “You, too? Are you being willfully stupid? Don’t you know that anything that is swallowed works its way through the intestines and is finally defecated? But what comes out of the mouth gets its start in the heart. It’s from the heart that we vomit up evil arguments, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, lies, and cussing. That’s what pollutes. Eating or not eating certain foods, washing or not washing your hands—that’s neither here nor there.”

 

Larry Wishard

1.15.18