Is 24 Hours in a Day Enough?
By Pamela Blattner
“Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.”
Ecclesiastes 2:11
A while back, one of my professors picked up a pickle jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked all of us if the jar was full. We all agreed that it was. Then he picked up a box of pea gravel and poured it into the jar. He shook the jar carefully. The gravel rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He asked us again if we thought the jar was full, and we, again, agreed that it was. Next, he picked up a box of sand and poured it into the pickle jar. The sand filled up everything else, and he asked us, again, if the jar was full. Again, we said “Yes!” I thought the illustration was complete until he went under the table and got two cups of coffee and poured them into the jar. Then, very seriously and deliberately he said, "I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things in your life like your relationships with God, family and friends. The pebbles are other things that matter, like your job and your house. The sand is everything else… “the small stuff.” If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued, "there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for your life. If you spend all your time and energy on the little things, you won’t have room for the significant things that are really important to you…the things you take to eternity.” He then went on to share that his wife had just suffered a stroke…By Pamela Blattner
“Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.”
Ecclesiastes 2:11
As I was driving home that evening, I thought of the little things I’d been doing that really weren’t my first priorities in life. Later that evening, I talked with my husband. I told him I had to start to take care of the golf balls first—the things that really matter. Together, we reset our priorities and got rid of most of “the sand.” But, we agreed that no matter how full our schedules may be, there’s always room for a cup of coffee!
When circumstances in life seem almost too much to handle…when 24 hours in a day are not enough…let’s remember the pickle jar and prioritize well.
GOING DEEPER:
1. This week, how can you reprioritize to make your life more fruitful and beneficial?
2. What can you do to make God and things of eternal value your main concern?
FURTHER READING:
Ecclesiastes 4:4
Pam and her husband Richard have two adult children and two grandchildren. She serves Oakwood through its Family Care Ministries.
