Tyranny of the Urgent

NR Johnson-Tyranny Of The Urgent

This is a article that a friend sent to me which I really liked.I really encourage you to read the entire thing. But here are a few excerpts to wet your appetite:

When we stop to evaluate, we realize that our dilemma goes deeper than a shortage of time; it is basically the problem of priorities.  Hard work does not hurt us.  We all know what it is to go full speed for long hours, totally involved in an important task.  The resulting weariness is matched by a sense of achievement and joy.  Not hard work, but doubt and misgiving, produce anxiety as we review a month or year and become oppressed by the pile of unfinished tasks.  We sense uneasily that we may have failed to do the important.  The winds of people’s demands have driven us onto a reef of frustration.  We confess, quite apart from our sins, “We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; and we have done those things which we ought not to have done.”




Prayerful waiting on God is indispensable to effective service.  Like the time-out in a football game, it enables us to catch our breath and fix new strategy.  As we wait for directions, the Lord frees us from the tyranny of the urgent.  He shows us the truth about Himself, ourselves, and our tasks.  He impresses on our minds the assignments He want us to undertake.  The need itself is not the call; the call must come form the God who knows our limitation.   




Yet we know from experience that only by this means can we escape the tyranny of the urgent.  This is how Jesus succeeded.  He did not finish all the urgent tasks in Palestine or all the things He would have liked to do, but He did finish the work which God gave Him to do.