24 April, 2005

Time...Confirmation...Excellence...Why Is It Taking Me So Long to Get This Thing Down?

I'd like to share a paragraph or so from the much-read, little-quoted book "Blue Like Jazz" by Donald Miller...

"I believe that the greatest trick of the devil is not to get us into some sort of evil but rather have us wasting time. This is why the devil tries so hard to get Christians to be religious. If he can sink a man's mind into habit, he will prevent his heart from engaging God."

As I mentioned in passing in my last entry, I have felt very busy lately, and not quite certain what it is that has been filling my time so. Just this afternoon at lunch with some friends at Famous Anthony's (where else?) it really hit me, how many things I have committed to as of late. On my way back to my dorm I was thinking and praying about shaking a few things loose, so I can do the few other things with excellence, and give them the time they deserve. I do really hate saying "no" without having confirmation that I should do so, so who do I call?

My mom, of course.

I gave my mom the rundown pretty quick and she reasoned that it is the wisest thing, to prioritize and cut back a bit. Then I walked in my room, got online and read this:
http://www.johncarl.com/blog .

And then I read that Donald Miller quote...

And that was pretty much all the confirmation I needed for today. :)

A life filled with long to-do lists completed carelessly, is really a life of failure, compared to a life with a few things, done with excellence.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

always a great idea to seek good counsel. :)
Mom

Heather said...

the age old adage, hil. if i had to do the college thing over and again -- i would have learned the art of refining much earlier!

Heather said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Jeffrey said...

Couldn't agree more Hil! 2 Peter 1:3-9 illustrates this exact goal of Satan. He cannot touch our soul or spirit, so his mission is to make us "ineffective and unproductive" for the Kingdom of God.

How can we avoid it? Like you said--slow down. We see in verses 5-7 that allowing God to produce such things (which strikingly resemble the fruit of the Spirit) in our lives keeps us from falling prey to our enemy's objective.

You rock!

John C. said...

good councel = mom

:)