The Tyranny of the Urgent
I talked with one of the men in our church the other night about this new group of "mavericks". He is on board and this resonates with him. So much of what he and I discussed had to do with the urgency of his life. He hits the floor running every morning and stays swamped all through the day. He drags himself home at 7pm for time with his three small children, falls asleep and wakes up all to quickly for another day exactly like the last one. He said his life feels like movie Groundhog Day ... same thing over and over and over.

Where is the time to be close to God?
Where is the excitement and adventure that he once felt as a new Christian - empowered and emboldened to share the gospel with guy across the hall in his dorm?
Where is the freedom he once enjoyed in God?

Webster's defines Tyranny as "absolute power especially when exercised unjustly or cruelly". The urgency in our lives serves as a tyrant over us exercising its power usually in an unjust or cruel manner. My friend's life is so urgent that it totally consumes him.

I confess I struggle with the same "urgency". My life gets so urgent that I miss God all around me. Jimmy Blanchard use to always say, "The graveyard is full of indispensible people - folks so important that we begin to think the business cannot run without them".

This call for me (and I think my friend John) is about waking up to the real opportunities around us. Not the business opportunity or the monetary opportunity or the society opportunity -- but the opportunity to throw off the shackles that are slowly burying us - throw them off, lift the burden and seek God. If we (lost sheep) will turn around, even though we have wandered far off, if we will turn around, we will find our Shepherd standing right there.

Soar.