God Is Not A Priority

We all have priorities.  Not everyone has the same priorities.  The priorities of a politician may be different than the priorities of a stock broker, a police officer, a football player or a mom.  Even beyond the different priorities that encompass different careers, each individual person has their own set of priorities.  Some want to be wealthy, some want to be famous, some want to be educated, some want to be rational, some want to be loved, some want to be left alone, some want to live ethical lives, some want to care for the planet or their families or their pets, and some want to be more spiritual or know God more fully.  A long time ago I decided that it was time to make God a priority in my life.  I had just given my life to Christ after a long period of living for myself and I wanted to make sure that I prioritized my spiritual life.  So I added God to my list of priorities, right along side providing for my family, loving my wife and children, becoming a famous musician, taking care of my health, writing a book, doing post graduate work, vacations, date nights, and the list goes on and on...

What I discovered was this: when I made God a priority he tended to get shuffled...a lot.  I also found that I tended to compartmentalize God.  For instance, this hour is when I will focus on God and my spirituality because the rest of the day is about work and family and school and eating and taking my kids to football.  When I listed all my priorities I began to realize that quite often I made other things a priority over God.  Not because I intended to or wanted to but because I wasn't connected with who God really is and what God really wants for me.

God IS my life.  God is not part of my life.  God is over and in and around and through everything I do each day.  He is not just an hour before breakfast or a few chapters in the Bible before I fall asleep. He is not just prayer before meals or when I need help.  Honestly, if that is all God is, where is he when I sleep in and am late for work or when things are going well and I don't need any desperate help or when I decide to stay up late and watch a movie and then fall asleep and drag myself to bed?  He ends up getting pushed off until tomorrow or until I have more time or am once again faced with a situation I can't handle on my own.  Then God is suddenly a priority again.        

God has to be above priorities because as I discovered, priorities are subject to my control and my desires and my failures and my weaknesses. 

Now I engage in prayer continually as I go throughout my day because I have come to realize that God is with me wherever I am and doesn't need me to set aside quiet time and close my eyes and go into some long formal prayer when I want to talk to Him.  I can talk to him in sentences or phrases or questions as I drive, walk, or in the middle of a difficult conversation with someone and I need His grace.  When things come to mind, I don't need to put them off until my prayer time, I just talk to God about them right then because He is listening, always.  If I choose, I can also carve out time to spend in longer solitude and prayer, but that is not the only way to connect with God.  

I find God in the ordinary, in the everyday, in movies, words, phrases, music, beauty, nature, good food, a great wine, the joy of a good laugh, the community of good friends.  I don't have to wait for that 'sacred' time of devotions or those few verses I read before bed.  God is everywhere in this world, waiting, wanting us to discover Him in new and mysterious ways.

I still try to make time in my day to read the Bible to listen for God speaking to me, for silence and solitude, but I also realize that God is far beyond those times I try, and often fail, to make for Him. And so, with a very keen sense of my own weakness I have come to realize that as long as I try to make God a priority in my life, He will always be shuffled around, no matter how hard I try to keep him the top priority.  God is no longer one of the priorities in my life.  God is my life.  I am trying to see Him in everything I do, in everything I say, in every moment, in the good and the bad, in the successes and the failures.  

Some will no doubt say that this view of my life is about making God a priority, that I have prioritized seeing God in my life every day.  I would agree.  I am prioritizing the attempt to see God as more than a priority.  I know it is confusing, and for some it may just seem like a semantical argument, but for the way God has wired me, it is what makes sense to me.