Juggling Life’s Priorities, part 1
Anyone who is serious about living a meaningful, value-based life has to deal with the question of priorities. Perhaps the most common theoretical approach to priorities is the vertically ordered list. For many Christians it goes something like this: God is number one, family is number two, church is number three (or perhaps work and then church), and so forth. Whatever life areas make up such a list for any one person, they are placed in order of diminishing priority.
The problem with this approach is that it sets priorities in a static hierarchy that makes some permanently less important than others. Take family and church for example. If church falls in a lower spot than family, that means that whenever there is any choice to be made between the two, the church always gets the short stick by default. Is it really the case that no church activities are ever more important than certain family considerations? In real life, such an approach to priorities can’t work consistently. If this is so, perhaps a paradigm shift is in order. I suggest that it is and that such a shift would involve at least two steps.
The first step is to realize that all priorities are priorities. In the vertical approach, it’s hard to view something as truly a priority when there are several things ahead of it on a static list! At some point, a low enough spot on such a list renders the idea of a “priority” virtually meaningless. All priorities are priorities.
The second step in the paradigm shift is to move away from the vertical, linear conception, to one that is illustrated by the art of juggling. A juggler works with several balls. Each ball is as important as any other, but there is always at least one that is not in his hands at any given moment. Nevertheless, he is always aware of where that ball is. The more balls there are, the more important it is for the juggler to know a number of things:
• Which ball needs to be in my hands right now?
• Where in the air are all of the other balls?
• Which one will soon need to be caught?
• Which one needs to be let go of to make room for the one that’s landing? And on it goes.
All of the balls are priorities. As long as the juggler is aware and actively juggling, none of the balls gets dropped.
Now, anyone who has ever tried to learn how to juggle knows that it isn’t easy. Well, guess what? Living life well isn’t easy! But it’s worth the effort required to learn. However, there are some benefits to be derived from learning to juggle priorities. This will be the subject of the next post, along with what should be a burning question for any thoughtful Christian: How does God fit into this paradigm? Stay tuned.
April 8th, 2014 at 5:51 am
I thought it interesting that the word, “prior”, is a theological term in certain circles of the church.. just a humble thought to throw out there to think about.
April 8th, 2014 at 7:40 am
Yes, that is interesting. A prior is a person of higher rank in a monastery. I hadn’t thought of that.
May 4th, 2014 at 6:14 am
Interesting article.
I have often thought that saying that “God is number one” can be a meaningless statement. We need to seek out what that really means in an individual’s life.
I am still trying to figure that one out 🙂 Matthew 15:5 can be applicable, I think.
I like the juggling analogy. And because of grace, if we drop a ball we can pick it back up.