The Tyranny of the Stuff I Never Got Around To
08/04/2005 00:01 Filed in: Personal
Over the weekend, I replied to an email that an old friend from college sent me. I haven't seen or heard from him in years. It was nice to see what he's up to and update him on the things that Kathy and I are doing. That's nice, you think to yourself, but why are you writing about this? Well, what makes the email exchange worthy of mention is that I was replying to an email that I first received in March of 2000! In fact, my friend's email address had changed since then, and I had to find him on the internet and resend my message.
Do you ever take important information that you need to reply or give attention to and put it in a drawer, or a filing cabinet or some stack somewhere thinking you will take care of it eventually? I do that more often than I would like to admit. I even do it with email now and then. I have this "Needs Attention" folder in my email. That's where Mitch's email sat for the last five years. I've recently determined that if I put something in that folder, I am consigning it to an indefinite "correspondence limbo."
I was reflecting on this today because I read with interest Gordon MacDonald's column "Downsize Me" at the Leadership Journal website. He writes about spending the summer going through his house, garage, bookshelves, filing cabinets, etc., discarding the things that he no longer needs. In doing so, he makes these observations:
First, how much time and energy I gave to things that really weren't very important and had no long term value. Second, how many people who were once champions for some effort flamed out after just a few years and disappeared. Conversely, how many times I misjudged someone, wrote them off, and then saw them gather strength and become saints. And, finally, how important it is to be faithful in the routine, day-after-day exercises of leadership. You don't get much people-shaping done if you move every two years.
Perhaps the most embarrassing aspect of all these files is their evidence of my feverish sense of self-importance. Too much about me, too little about Jesus.
Result: Operation Downsizing is worming its way into my soul and its issues. Getting rid of books and old sports equipment was easier. My spiritual basement is a tougher place to work in.
I had a similar experience earlier this summer myself. I resigned from my position at Whitefield Academy and spent my last few days going through five years worth of stuff in my desk and filing cabinets in my former office. Then, a few days later, I consolidated four filing cabinet drawers of stuff at home down to two drawers. In doing all that, I came to the conclusion that if you put something off because you want to deal with it later, by the time you get around to actually doing that, it will no longer be relevant.
This worked on two levels for me. First, there were things that I filed or set aside because I thought they were important or because I thought I would want to pursue them later. In the end, I piled trash cans HIGH with that kind of stuff because it was really too late or it was something that no longer interested me. Then, on the other hand, I had notes written to myself to check on this student, or to call that parent back, or to rethink a particular grade I had given. Although I did those kinds of things regularly, I never took the time to do them all. There just seemed to never be enough time...
Years ago, I read a little booklet called "Tyranny of the Urgent." You can find it in its entirety on the internet, and I started to attach a pdf file to this blog entry, but technically it's copyrighted material, so I decided against posting it. However, you can buy a copy from Intervarsity Press for $1.50.
In this little booklet, Charles Hummel reminds us that there is a distinction between what it is urgent and what is important. If you're like me, you triage your tasks. Putting everything in my life in chronological order, what's my next deadline? Well, then, I'll do that next. Those are the things that are urgent, but they aren't necessarily important. That email reply to an old friend, or that little voice that tells you to check on a particular student, or the realization that you haven't spent quality time with your family in a while... Well, those things don't have deadlines, do they? But they are important, vitally important. And, if you're like me, you let those urgent things--those deadlines--keep you from doing the things that you need to do, the things that have lasting--eternal--value.
Well, read Hummel's booklet for practical advice on making the important things a reality in your life over the urgent things. This blog entry is just a reminder, primarily to myself.
"Give us this day, our daily bread" (Matthew 6:11) is the prayer that I often forget to pray. Rather than taking care of the important things that are given to me daily, I often pursue the urgent things that on down the path of my life are not all that relevant. Perhaps if I focused more on the daily bread, I would have to focus less on "forgive us our (i.e. MY) debts..."