We must accept the fact that there seems to be too much to do. Life does not accommodate itself to our wishes or desires. When we embark on the futile attempt to get everything done, we are actually evading the responsibility of making the hard decisions of what is most important. Jesus addressed this situation as He prayed to His Father:

I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do. (John 17:4)

Consider the impact of Jesus’ words to His disciples. There were still people who needed to be healed and people who needed to hear the Gospel – but Jesus declared that He had accomplished the work that His heavenly Father had sent Him to do. Do you have a sense of accomplishment in your life? If not, we must ask ourselves, “Who’s setting our agenda?”

We have a limited amount of time, so if we attempt to get everything done that is a prescription for frustration. If we are to make wise use of our time, we must realize that we have a finite amount of time. This necessitates deciding what you will say yes to and what you will say no to – even good things. You can choose to do many things, but you cannot do everything.

We experience frustration when we refuse to accept our finite amount of time and attempt to live beyond human limitations. We long for a sense of illusory control in which we finally arrive at a mythical utopia when we have it all together. Our daily reality however, seems like Sisyphus rolling the rock up a mountain only to have it come back down.

We must realize that difficult decisions are unavoidable and we must learn to make them consciously. This entails deciding what to focus on and practicing the art of strategic neglect rather than letting them get made by default. It may be tempting to ignore our human limitations, but we are reminded of them with consistent regularity. We must accept the fact that the demands of life often exceed our available resources. We experience freedom in letting go of the fantasy that we can do it all and this enables us to focus on those tasks that are most important. John Maxwell observed, “You cannot overestimate the unimportance of practically everything.” What are you currently doing that will not matter five years from now? Solomon realized the ephemeral nature of many of our activities,

Thus I considered all my activities which my hands had done and the labor which I had exerted, and behold all was vanity and striving after wind and there was no profit under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 2:11)

What do you need to deliberately disregard so that you can consciously concentrate on what is important? Determine what God wants you to do and let Him set your agenda.

Associate Pastor – Discipleship.  The Church at LifePark

Professor of Discipleship, Columbia International University

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