What Matters

It's not quite 5:00 am.

It's my favorite time of the day.

I haven't checked my email.

I haven't scrolled through Facebook.

It's not because I have a habit, ritual, or discipline.

It's just because I'm not ready yet.

I'm not ready to engage in all that is going on in the world.

In just a little while, I'll read some news stories that will inform me on the important things taking place in our world. 

But, based on yesterday, I've got some ideas about the hot topics taking place.

I've got a pretty good idea of what the focus of today is going to be in the DFW area.

Every sports radio station will be calling for Jerry to sale the Cowboys or at least let someone else run the team.

There will be tributes, posts, and memes celebrating Taylor and Travis.

There will be other tributes, posts, and memes about how and why people don't care about Taylor and Travis.

There will be a few more references about Cracker Barrell, its reversal, and why some consider this a victory.

Then there's the actual news.

School shootings. The debate over guns. Why this happens. Why nothing changes. Who's at fault.

President Trump.  Why he's the best. Why he's the worst. Why people love him. Why people hate him.

Weather related events. Redrawing political districts. The Economy. Jobs. Housing. Scandals. Abuse.

Opinions. Opinions of the opinions.

We’ve got a lot of people who are telling us what they think. 

We've got a lot of people telling us what we should  think.

But, then, there's another layer.  A layer that goes beyond the newsfeeds and the headlines.

There's the stories about people. The people we know.  The people we care about.

We know multiple people dealing with cancer.

We know multiple parents who have children that are dealing with cancer.

We know multiple people who are dealing with the loss of their spouse.

We know multiple people who are dealing with the devastation of losing their child.

We know multiple people who are facing divorce.

We know multiple people who are dealing with addiction.

We know multiple parents who have children dealing with addiction.

We know multiple people who are out of work.

We know multiple people who are out of money.

We know multiple people who don't know what happens after what happens next.

It's another layer of need.

It’s another layer of pain.

It's another layer of hurt.

And, I guess it's fine for Taylor and Travis to be a diversion from the reality of our own lives.

And, maybe there's some level of satisfaction of celebrating Uncle Herschel and nostalgia.

But, I'm going to call us out on something.

We pay way too much attention to the things that don't matter.

We don't pay nearly enough attention to things that do matter.

We don't have our priorities straight.

We've lost sight of what is most important.

We've disregarded Who is most important.

When Jesus told us to SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD, he was telling us not to get distracted and fixated on lesser things.  Jesus was telling us to pay attention to the fact that this world is not our final destination.

Jesus was telling us that there was a mission.

Jesus was telling us about the full extent of His great love for every single person on this planet.

Jesus was telling His followers to love, serve, and engage all of the people, as if we were serving Him.

I know it sounds like I'm being self-righteous.

I know it sounds like I'm taking things too far.

I hear the arguments.  I've heard the arguments. 

There's nothing wrong with enjoying sports, movies, music, entertainment, news, politics, and economics.

There's nothing wrong with social media, playing games, and enjoying some down time.

Unless we are seeking those things above the Kingdom of God.

Listen, we never Seek First The Kingdom Of God by accident.

It's always intentional.

It require drowning out everything else.

It requires focus.

It requires intentionality.

So, as we engage, as we interact, as we scroll through our feeds, as we leave our comments, as we send our text messages, as we show up at the football game tonight, as we walk past people wherever we may end up today, remember this:

There are things that don’t matter,

There are no people that don't matter.

SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD.