[This reflection was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, December 2016]
It’s that time of the year when before we know it, we’re so busy, we’ve forgotten what really matters.
David Jeremiah on Premier Christian Radio on Monday morning this week, was speaking about his early years in Christian Ministry. He said that he was so busy with getting his Ministry started and that his primary motivation was a raging desire to avoid failure. He visited homes every night of the week, made appointments to visit people daily, spent practically all his time at work, while his wife was raising their two young children. He described himself as the classic absentee father.
He was busy trying to shepherd his sheep scattered across two counties of Indiana and was too pre-occupied to notice the two little lambs under his own roof and his wife who needed his concern. His wife had a dilemma – he was doing God’s work. How could she fight against the Lord? He told her he was all that the ministry had and didn’t she understand that if he didn’t do the tasks he was doing, they wouldn’t get done?
He said his wife later asked if they could talk. She said “I want you to know that I will never again ask you about how you spend your time. I don’t know how to do that in the light of what you do. I’ve been praying about it and the Lord just told me this – You are the priest in this family David and someday you’ll have to give an account to God as to what you’ve done as the leader of our home. These children are your responsibility and I’m going to hold you responsible to make the right decisions, but I’m going to leave it up to you and God”.
For David Jeremiah, that was a wake-up call. He said he later dropped to his knees and said “God, you didn’t call me to this place to destroy my family for the sake of building a Church. There is no conflict in your will. I am a father first and if you will help me, by your grace, I’ll make my children a priority from this day on”.
This Christmas, I pray we all get wake-up calls that help us put things in perspective and prioritise correctly. We need to remember that spending our time with those who need us may be more important than the money we spend on them.
Importantly, we also need to remember that it does not make much sense to celebrate the season without remembering the reason for the season. Christmas doesn’t really make sense without Christ. Make time over Christmas to get to know him.
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Contributed by David Makanjuola; © the Author
