Point of View
Life depends on your point of view. Many of us suffer from the tyranny of the urgent. We are so busy that we miss the point of life. We have our "wants" and we seek to have them met. We run so hard that we miss the entire point of the walk Christ has given us to reach others for His kingdom.

Last night, Shannon and I had a free night. Our oldest daughter left for the Souled-Out beach retreat and our youngest daughter spent the night out. So we had a free night. I rode my bike yesterday for the first time this year (shame on me) and was starving because my only lunch was a power bar. We stopped by a neighbor's house on the way out of the neighborhood. Shannon had been trying to work with this neighbor on association issues. Shannon was trying to make the situation better and walked into a buzz-saw. I stayed in the car because selfishly, I was ready to eat. I could see her inside the house talking and talking. It took forever. The longer it went on, the madder I got. Little did I know that she was under attack in the house for trying to do the right thing. She needed me by her side and I was too busy focused on my needs to meet hers. How often do we do this?

On the way to dinner, she cried and told me what happened. I was a jerk to not be in there with her but I wanted my needs met. We went to Carrabbas to spend some coupons and the meal wasn't great. I don't much care for their food (again, "my" needs).

But here is the point -- and it is real powerful. When we left the building walking to my truck, we passed a couple and their small girl in a wheelchair. The husband walked up to the wife and gave her a big hug and said "dinner was great honey, happy birthday". With that, this angel of a little girl had her face light up and she shouted with glee, "Daddy, I want a happy birthday hug too" and she whipped her wheelchair over to her Mom and Dad to get her hug. The look on her face was unforgettable. Priceless. Stunning. Deathly convicting.

Dadgum it men, WHAT ON EARTH ARE WE DOING??? God shook me like a pine tree during a raging thunderstorm last night. There in all my needs and wants, God showed me a true want. A little girl with withered legs slayed my evil spirit right there in that parking lot. I, who have all any man could want, was taught a powerful lesson by a little girl who would pay millions just for chance to walk across a Carrabba's parking lot. Even though she "wanted" to walk, her true want was a hug from her Daddy. Shame on me.

This is what I am talking about in all these blogs. The tyranny of the urgent makes us act like jerks because we don't get what we want when all along what we truly want is sitting right there under our fat noses. God is calling us to so much more than "being too busy" to play a game with our kids or sit and listen to our wives or reach out to that man at work whose life is coming apart. God is calling you and I to soar.