Put "Yourself" as Item #1
There are things about us that are completely unique, like jewels in a one-of-kind piece of jewelry. Individual facets all put together in a combination, never before and never after, to be duplicated again. We wake up in the morning with fresh thoughts; some of the freshest being little voices that whisper to us ways to tend these facets of our life so that the gift of who we are can be delivered to the world. Voices like, "Take time to go on that walk..", "make some space for meditation today", "today, make space to write", or "to study" or to "paint" or "to meet with a friend".
The stealing voices accuse us of being selfish, indulgent, not living in the real world, like everyone else. Too many days, a very familiar thing happens. After the innocence and freshness of the first thoughts of life in our waking moments, "real life" rushes in with long lists of "urgent" things screaming pushing aside those unrealistic, "indulgent" thoughts & compel us to forget those fantasies & get to the "urgent" tasks of the day.
"It'll be ok," they lie to us.. ,"you can get to those things later after you take care of your responsibilities." Too many times we listen. Instead of giving first place to the "jewels" of who we are & the gift we might bring to the world, we get busy.. we ignore them.. push them aside til "later". By the time "later" arrives, our day or our strength, are gone.
Think about the life of John the Baptist. His life is an example of someone who didn't let the practical things of this world pull him away from the inestimable gift he had been created to bring to the world. He was here to do something no one else in all history EVER had the privilege of doing.
"Are you the Messiah?.. Elijah? ... the Prophet?," they asked him. "No, no, no...," he replied. Then, directly, he said, "I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness. Clear the way for the Lord's coming."
What if John had let himself be pulled away from his mission? What if when he felt those "unrealistic","indulgent" thoughts; ignoring all the worlds "to do's", he pushed them aside and first got a real man's work done and then came back to do those other things afterward? Would we ever have received his gift? What would we have missed?
We don't tend to put ourselves in the same category as John, but I would challenge you on that thought. We are each here for a divinely inspired, powerful work to do. Is the world being robbed of that gift because of these "urgent" tasks that go on and on for eternity? Do you really think they will ever come to an end? Do we want one of our greatest regrets to be arriving in heaven only to see before us a picture of what God had intended for us to do in our life on earth .. and have it be completely different than what we actually did?
Today, I left the house with my husband, dropped him off, & had a full day's worth of "to do's" on my list, but the whispers said, ".. stop, give yourself an hour.. to write, to study.. take care of that first!" Could I do it?! Could i really push the rest aside and prioritize these jewels of my soul? I did, sitting here right now with my computer and a cup of tea. I will trust the Divine to direct the rest to fall into place in the order it belongs.