“I didn’t have time.” I think that must be one of the most frequently told lies in the modern era. I’ve probably told it myself. We don’t usually mean it to be a lie. In one sense, it could be argued that it isn’t. We all must make choices as to how our time is spent. Some things must take priority and that may mean other things don’t happen. I have called it a lie because it’s usually not the whole truth. In most cases, we had the time. We simply chose to do something else with it. Maybe something else was truly more important, but most of us need to be more aware of what we are doing and why we are doing it.

What I hear when someone tells me they didn’t have time is that whatever they didn’t have time for wasn’t important enough to them to allocate time to. Their reasons may be good ones. If my wife is in trouble, everything else just got pushed down the list and I’ll get to them if I can. We all have priorities, and we should.

It has been said that a person’s priorities can be determined by where they spend their money. There’s truth in that, but I think it’s at least as telling to see where they spend their time. Most of us will devote a sizeable chunk of time to work. For some, the job is a priority in itself, but I dare say for the majority of us, the real priority is food. We want to be able to eat, and so we work. We also want to be able to feed those whom we love and who depend on us. We might rather be doing something else, but priority drives us to do what we must do to satisfy it.

Others have discovered that at least in this country one does not necessarily have to work in order to eat, so long as he can accept the reduced standard of living that will likely result. For them, more immediate gratifications rule the day. They fail to see the destructive nature of the priorities they have chosen.

Often, we don’t have time because we waste it on things that don’t matter. Rest and entertainment are good things. To some degree, they are necessary for our health. But as with most things, too much of something good becomes bad for us. When our gratification becomes more important to us than the things that God has said are important, we need a priority adjustment.

I think it’s safe to say none of us get this completely right, but God’s word in the Bible does give us a framework for setting our priorities. Those who have been raised in church may be familiar with the hierarchy. The wonderful thing is that if you will maintain God at the top, service to Him will cascade down to the other things, because they all come from Him. Therefore, one activity is not exclusive to one priority. By working at a job, I am providing for my family and even for my church. So, I am also working in the service of God. That can get twisted. If my objective becomes the accumulation of wealth only that I may have more, then I can no longer claim that I do it in service to God. I’ve put something else at the top, and the whole structure will collapse.

I had in mind to list things out the way I think they should be based on my reading of scripture, but I think it will be better if I let the scripture speak for itself. Here are some key passages. All quotations are taking from the Legacy Standard Bible translation.

• ³⁵ And one of them, a scholar of the Law, asked Him a question, testing Him, ³⁶ “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” ³⁷ And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the great and foremost commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Matthew 22:35-39)
• But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. (1 Timothy 5:8)
• ² fulfill my joy, that you think the same way, by maintaining the same love, being united in spirit, thinking on one purpose, ³ doing nothing from selfish ambition or vain glory, but with humility of mind regarding one another as more important than yourselves, ⁴ not merely looking out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. ⁵ Have this way of thinking in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, although existing in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷ but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a slave, by being made in the likeness of men. ⁸ Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. ⁹ Therefore, God also highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, ¹⁰ so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹ and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:2-11)
• For even when we were with you, we used to command this to you: if anyone is not willing to work, neither let him eat. (2 Thessalonians 3:10)
• The beginning of wisdom is: Acquire wisdom; And with all your acquiring, acquire understanding. (Proverbs 4:7)