Dr. Barclay with Something to Think About - PRIORITIES

 PRIORITIES

Those aspects of life that we deem to be important usually change as we progress through life. Raising a family, getting an education, finding a job, and maintaining that job along with a home all take on different degrees of importance depending on the stage of life one happens to be in. We will spend 10-20 years getting trained for a job or career that will consume the next 40-50 years while hoping then to enjoy a retirement which may or may not end up being what one hoped for or expected. Often the end result is does not live up to what was expected. 

In areas and in times when life is, or was not, as easy as we often appear to have it, people seem to have taken a more active interest in the religious aspect of their lives than apparently is the case in this part of the world today. Where we often have Bibles collecting dust on our shelves, people in more remote or less prosperous areas will often line up for hours to obtain their copy of the Bible and then read it until the pages are “dog-eared” with wear. In earlier times in this province, the Acadians would often walk up to 12 miles, carrying their shoes to save them, because dress shoes were hard to come by, in order to go to church and then would have to repeat the journey to return home after service.* Today, most people won’t walk across the street or drive around the block to attend a place of worship. There are frequently too many other priorities in their day.

We all seek, in our lives, for that “something” that provides the satisfaction really desired by all. For some, the priority seems to be an instant type of gratification sought through alcohol, drugs, or some other type of destructive self gratification. That may give some immediate “pleasure” but the total satisfaction we all seek just retreats further and further away. Others look for it through either their work, families, accomplishments, or education. This often gives a more lasting comfort, and at times greater satisfaction, but still in the end something is lacking and we, as we get closer to the end of our lives, realize that life has still been incomplete. There still may not be the complete life fulfillment that we crave.

King Solomon was like this. In Ecclesiastes, he states that he tried everything to find the true reason and meaning of life but with all his resources and knowledge was unable to do so until he realized that the void we all try to fill with our own efforts can only be filled by something outside ourselves. C. S. Lewis put it this way:

Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exist. A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire: well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it… probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. (Mere Christianity, 1952)

Solomon never found the real meaning or satisfaction in life “under the sun.” It was only when he looked back to God did he realize from where the real meaning of life came. He made it his priority to find this out and he did. Our problem is that we spend 20 years or so preparing for about a 40 year career but no time trying to prepare for a possible eternity. That doesn’t seem to be in our priority any more. Rather than “dog-earing” our Bibles or walking miles to a service, our priority is more in keeping with the instant type of gratification: sports, entertainment, or that next new “toy.”

In his earlier years, King Solomon followed and walked with God. In his later years, he turned to idols and left his relationship with God for these other philosophies. It was only after this that he realized what he had lost when he left that relationship, including the true meaning and purpose in life.

Solomon had lost his main priority, and in many ways so have we. What’s your main priority? The Bible says: “…seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matthew 6:33).

And that should be something to think about.  

*Plaque outside church in Minudie N.S.