Prioritising an Encounter with God

There's a productivity framework called "the Big Rocks". The main idea is that if you start with your most important tasks (maximum three) and then put all your other tasks around that, you will find time for everything, but if you start focusing on your small tasks, you'll run out of time for the big ones.

I've seen this many times at work where the hum of day to day operations push out the really important tasks until there's no time left for them. But when I set time (usually first thing in the day) to work on those crucial tasks, they and all my other tasks get done. And the tasks that don't get done aren't that important.

The only challenge is making sure that the various notifications and pings as well as other people's activities don't prevent me from starting on those tasks in the first place.

While this clearly applies to work and project management, I've also seen it in my spiritual life.

God in the margins

I have all to often treated God and my faith as an add on—something to help me when times are tough or something to help me be a better person. During these seasons, my calendar reveals my priorities and how God is lower.
This isn't intentional, but it reflects my heart.

• I'm focused on other things,
• I have desires that I haven't given to God (even good ones)
• I get worried and trust my own strength to solve them.

And so my quiet times with God get push to the side while I strive in my own effort.

But this week I had a different idea.

What if our number one priority was an encounter with God?

When I write down my main goals for the day, an encounter with God has rarely been there. But as I read the opening chapters from "Be Still" this week, I realized just how important encountering God is.

Brian points out how vital God is. After all,

But he answered, “It is written, ‘Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
Matthew 4:4

Imagine risking missing a meal on an important day when you have a lot going on. You would probably find yourself feeling more tired and less able to focus leading to a worse performance. Instead, you should probably pay more attention to your food that day so you can perform better.

This explains why Luther and others have commented that when they were busy, they spent MORE time in prayer.

Putting first things first

So I'm experimenting with ways to put encountering God as my top priority. To not event start anything else until I have achieve that point.

Of course, there are limits and practically issues with having a small family, but if my priority is to spend time with God, I will make sure find a moment when I can put myself in the place to have an encounter with God. Not just at the start of the day, but during the whole day.

I hope I can share more soon.