When Things Get In the Way

Have you ever been distracted? Have things filled your calendar and the hours of the days.

I haven’t written for two weeks. Summer times have special things happen at our church. VBS was a wild week … Followed by a week of Youth Camp. These events and others filled my days quickly. Throw in normal and important responsibilities, and add some flavor of unexpected demands … and there you go … no more time left.

Today, as I write this, was the first day I thought I could hit the trails and enjoy the Blue Ridge Mountains. But … last minute newsletter inserts, broken video mixer needed evaluated, phone calls to techs, and a sweet lunch provided by the local best cook ever … and the day is gone. No trail. Little free time.

Things get in the way.

Life is like this. Maybe not every week or every day, but it happens.

I have this story several times … but Stephen Covey made it popular in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People … Here is the site I got this from

The story goes that a philosophy professor sets a large glass jar on a table in front of his students, then proceeds to fill it with fist-sized rocks. 

He asks the class, “Is the jar full?”  They agree that it is.  Then he produces a bowl of pebbles and pours them into the jar, filling the spaces between the rocks. He repeats his question.

Warier now, the students are less willing to agree the jar is full.  The professor then pours sand into the jar, which fills the remaining space among the rocks and pebbles.

The professor concludes by telling his class that the jar represents the time each of us has in a day.  The large rocks represent the most important things in life like family, health and relationships.  The pebbles constitute other important but less meaningful things like work and school.  The sand represents everything else – unimportant distractions. 

If we put the sand and pebbles into the jar first, there won’t be enough room to fit the larger, more important things.  But if we are smart and put the rocks in first, all the less important things will naturally fall into place around them, and there will be room (and time) for everything.

The important things go in first. We are to focus on those things that need to go in first. We are the jar. And everyday we decide what goes in the jar and in what order. If we make bad choices, our jar gets messed up.

And Rocks …
– they can be heavy, but important things often are
– big rocks can often be broken down into smaller parts … not every big rock has to be taken all at once
– sometimes big rocks need to be taken out of our jar to make room for other stuff, so evaluate what is in your jar
– most jars are transparent … (follow me here) .. and when people look at us, they will see what we fill our jars with … then they will see what we say are the important things, the big rocks … so what do people see in your jar?

So, a rock is more than rock. See ya tomorrow … maybe even on the trail.