As a supervisor
over others for most of my life, I learned early on the importance of “To Do”
lists. They are a great way to delegate
responsibility, authority, and accountability for tasks that are necessary for
a productive business. Some of the tasks
needed to be repeated every day, but for some reason there was always somebody
who couldn’t seem to grasp that concept.
When I would ask why nothing was accomplished the previous day, too many
times the answer was, “There were a lot of things on the list and I didn’t know
which were the most important tasks, so I didn’t get to any of them!” I’m sorry to say that often my first response was
one of anger, then frustration; after all, I felt the directives were quite clear.
In hindsight, I should have been more
like Jesus, and consolidated the 5-7 more important tasks into one or two
clear, indisputable mandates that would make completion of the list seem doable;
in other words, make the list ‘bite-size’.
In response
to the question of which is the greatest Commandment, Jesus gave the perfect
answer. He said, “You
shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and
with all your mind. This is the greatest
and the first commandment. The second is
like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37-39).
His
statement gave a complete summary of the moral law found in the Ten
Commandments. The first three
Commandments reveal that we must love God above all and with all our
might. The last seven Commandments
reveal that we must love our neighbor.
The moral law of God is as simple as fulfilling these two more general
commandments.
But is it
all that simple? Well, the answer is
both “Yes” and “No.” It’s simple in the
sense that God’s will is not typically complex and difficult to
comprehend. Love is spelled out clearly
in the Gospels and we’re called to embrace a radical life of true love and
charity.
When we have
difficulty loving God with all our heart, mind and soul all the time, every
day, every moment, no matter what's going on, it's usually because we're
spending too much time focused on other people and/or on our own plans and
wishes.
What are our
priorities? How much time should we
spend alone with God? How much time
should we spend nurturing ourselves? How
much of our time and needs and wants should be sacrificed for the sake of others?
We can’t
love God without loving ourselves and others, but God must always come first.
We must
focus on others in order to love them.
And we must focus on our own needs so that we can love others as much as
we love ourselves. Our own needs are
important, and we’re responsible for seeing that our needs get met; otherwise
we don't have enough to share with others - enough energy, enough enthusiasm,
enough kindness, enough patience, etc.
Likewise, we can't focus so much on ourselves that we neglect the needs
of others.
We find the
right balance only after we put God first and make our relationship with Him
our highest priority. This divine
friendship is what heals us in our unmet needs.
It's what empowers us to love others even when they’re difficult to
love. And we don't have to be alone with
God all day to have intimacy with Him.
We love Him
first and foremost simply by relying on Him for success in loving others and
ourselves. As long as we keep turning to
Him for guidance, healing, and strength, we’re loving him with all our heart,
mind, and soul all the time, every day, every moment, no matter what's going
on.
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