“What’s the ONE Thing you can do such that by doing it everything else would be easier or unnecessary?” — The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Gary Keller, Jay Papasan
Jesus almost offended me just the other day.
Of course, for the serious bible reader, that happens far more than any of us would like to admit.
If your diet of Scripture reading is mostly of the “soup-for-the-soul” variety then you’ll not understand. But if you’ve dare to open up your Bible and begin really reading it as it was meant to be read – as a book, then you’ll find that’s it is chock full of opportunities to be offended or at least befuddled.
It was while reading Matthew 10, which records when Jesus called his first apostles and sent them on their first ministry trip: 5 These twelve Jesus sent out and commanded them, saying: “Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans. 6 But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
“Hey wait a minute Jesus! What’s this with no Gentiles or Samaritans? Virtually everyone I know and care deeply about are Gentiles! Matter of fact, virtually everyone in the world are Gentiles. And, just for the record, I am a Gentile.”
What’s going on here?
Is this the betrayal of a deep-seated prejudice on the part of Jesus?
Are Gentiles second-classed citizens in God’s kingdom?
Does God have his favorites, and the rest of us or just chopped liver?
If you’re looking for a justification to be offended, a quick reading of this passage offers an easy excuse.
Of course, having read the Bible broadly enough to have at least heard of John 3:16, we know that “God loves the world” and even in Matthew’s Gospel, if you press on to the end, you’ll discover that Jesus’ last instructions – to the same apostles – was to go into all the world. (And Acts 1:8 makes it clear that everyone is included.)
So what was Jesus’s purpose in limiting the original apostles on their very first ministry trip to just the Jews?
I assure you it wasn’t a slap in the face to the rest of the world. Jesus wasn’t demonstrating that he came to set up an exclusive club just for a very few select group of individuals who came from one particular bloodline.
No, he understood the principle of First Things First.
Promises had been made.
Covenants had been confirmed.
Before heading off into the “uttermost parts of the world” Jesus was first keeping his promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. (He doesn’t forget His promises – even the ones made to you!)
Yes, there are always other things that must be done.
There are even third-level things that it would be good and beneficial to do.
And to be honest, there are fourth-tier things that we’d rather be doing and, even though we don’t talk about them much, there are fifth-tier things that we dream of doing.
But get this: Unless you take care of the first things first, the possibility of achieving these other necessary, good, beneficial, fun and dreamed of things is greatly compromised and undermined.
To fail to take care of first things first is like willingly tying one hand behind your back.
It’s like dragging around a suitcase full of rocks wherever you do.
It’s like having leeches attached to your brain and soul constantly sucking away your brain power and creativity.
It’s like living with a low-grade fever of worry, resentment, and frustration.
Every day we live there are things that need to be done first: conversations that need to be had, chores that need to be done, and responsibilities that need to be fulfilled.
Of course there are always other things we’d rather be doing, but to surrender to the appeal of lesser things is to sabotage our ultimate hopes and dreams, and what’s worse, the compound interest on a lifetime of ignoring those things that should be done first is one of the greatest tragedies one can experience.
So…
What have you been putting off that you know needs to be done?
Why wait another day? Do something about it today.
First things first.
The ONE THING for today: Every day there are a few essentials things that need to be done first and to fail to do them is to sabotage our ultimate hopes and dreams.
