Early in 1974, a friend of mine, one Charles E. Hummel, released a small book titled—  The Tyranny of the Urgent. It created significant repercussions throughout the Christian community across America. Charlie challenged our persistent need to be constantly busy. He admitted to me that he had struggled with this for most of his life. [I never admitted to anything.]

       Here we are, some 50 years later, still cramming our schedules so full that we barely have time to breathe. We don’t even have time to read a book on time management—  let alone take a course on setting priorities!

       The ramifications of that are inconceivable. Western cultures have become obsessed with filling every little crack in our schedules with…, something.

       To be honest, I used to be this way. Kind of a busy-ness is next to godliness mentality. And I was blind to what I was doing.

         Somewhere along the line I developed one of my not-so-famous axioms. STOP! Give God some room to work. Why is it we always want to run ahead of Him to do OUR work?

         Then we complain we do not have enough time to get everything done. Maybe we need to take a step back and have a good look at how we are filling our time. I don’t believe God needs us to do anything. He does grant us the privilege of serving those around us in His name. Or do we do that in our name but say it is in His?

         As I asserted in the last EMPulse, I was rather arrogant in my younger days. Now, not so much. But what about you? What does your schedule look like? Packed to the gills? No space between appointments?

         Why?

         Do you think you can do more in your lifetime than Christ did in three years?

Gary

NEXT— EMPulse 15 – a confession