Ponder This

I was surfing the web today and I ran across this story:

A college professor set a large jar on his desk in front his class. He took handfuls of big rocks and began filling the jar. When they reached the very top, he asked the class if the jar was full. The class responded “yes.” The professor then took some smaller pebbles and started pouring the pebbles into the jar. The pebbles fell in between the much larger rocks. When the jar was filled to the top with the pebbles, he again asked the class if the jar was full. The class caught on quickly. “No,” they said. And the professor then began to take some sand and pour it into the jar, filling the jar to the top.

He then asked the class, “What do you think I was teaching you by this demonstration?” The class replied, “That there is always room for more.” “No,” the professor responded. “What I am trying to teach you is that you have to put your biggest things in first or there won't be room for them later on. You can squeeze your smaller things around your bigger things, but you can't squeeze your bigger things around your smaller things. There's always room for the smaller things in life, but not always room for the bigger things if you've already put the smaller things in first.”

Because we have a limited amount of time to accomplish things in this life, we need to make sure we have our priorities set on doing what we can for the Kingdom of God. Instead of being focused on the rock of Jesus Christ, most people are concerned with the sand of earthly desires.


This story really struck a chord with me because how many times do I tend to do this? How many times do I let the worries or desires of this world overshadow what the Lord is speaking to me? Jesus says, "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." (Matthew 6:33) Despite the turmoil and desires I have with everything going on in my life right now I need to continually focus on glorifying the Lord and seeking His will for my life. It's kind of interesting, when I fill the jar of my life with the "rocks" of God's righteousness they take up so much more space and are much more clearer to see than the "pebbles" and "sands" of my earthly desires. That's just how it should be. Christ should be more apparent in me than anything else.

It's kind of a relief to ponder this this because, let me tell ya, I am not good with organizing my life on my own. I tend to second guess everything I want to do. With me in control everything will eventually end up a mess. So, I'll let the Lord fill my life with His will first, and then I'll base every decision and desire around that.

This is nothing new to me. I just needed to hear it in a new and creative way.