It is important to separate the important from the trivial, but it is not always easy to know the difference. I was teaching school this week and was discussing this idea with high school students when one of the students asked me, “What is important?” I could have answered that question immediately, I have thought about it for years, but I turned the question back on the student and asked, “What do you think is important?” What followed was a twenty-minute discussion among the students about what looked important, but what, in the long run, might be trivial.
PEOPLE NOT PLACES
Since that conversation I have been thinking about how often that which is important is right next to that which is trivial, and how easy it is to get confused. For example, imagine you are touring
Europe with friends. You are at a beautiful castle, cathedral, or the site of an important event. You know this is an important moment, and you take a picture of the castle or cathedral. But years later you can’t remember who you were with. What you really wanted was a picture of your friends with the cathedral in the background. I have too many pictures of places, and too few close-up pictures of the friends I was with.
Another example: imagine you are at a high school football game. It is a big game for the state championship. It is exciting, and you are into the game, as you should be. But what is important years later is not who won and who lost, but the friends you were with and the excitement that you shared.
THE FRAMEWORK, NOT THE FILLING
I think high school is important, but with rare exceptions, most adults remember very little, if anything, of what they were taught in class. (The only thing I remember from four years of math is the Pythagorean theorem, a2 + b2 = c2. I can say with confidence that I have never needed that information. The only thing I remember from four years of history class is what caused the stock market crash of 1929. We played a simulation game for a couple of weeks; it was a blast. But like the Pythagorean theorem, knowing how the market crashed in 1929 has had little to do with my life. What I need to know is what the market is going to do in the future and that is a mystery.) So, what is important to learn in high school?
It is important to understand deadlines, the consequences of not meeting those deadlines, and the discipline of forcing yourself to do the unpleasant. High school is filled with the possibility of learning this in every class which has assignments and deadlines.
It is important to learn how to get along with people who are in authority. Some teachers and coaches are fun, are enthusiastic, and well organized. Other teachers, like many bosses that students will one day work for, are grumpy, disorganized, and hard to get along with. High school provides ample opportunities to learn how to navigate relationships with people who are in charge.
As you can see, the stuff that is important to learn–deadlines, discipline, getting along with those in authority–is right next to the academics. The school, and many teachers, emphasize how important the academics are, but the academics only provide the framework to learn what is most important.
RECOGNIZING THE DIFFERENCE
Being a missionary with Cadence International has provided me great freedom to use my time and resources according to what I think is most important. I love having this freedom. But with this freedom comes a burden. For the last forty years I have had to decide, almost daily, what is important and allocate my time and resources accordingly. This is a burden because often I am not sure what is most important: i.e., should I study the Bible or mow the lawn? Should I take a break and have coffee with Debbie or keep working on the blog? Should we stay in Germany or move back to the States? Should we stay in Cheyenne or move to another location where we have a better chance at a more fruitful ministry? Should I spend time on Facebook or read a non-fiction book which is calling my name? These are not hypothetical questions. These are real questions I face every day, and they live right next to one another. Some of these decisions seem small and others large. But because I don’t want to waste my life doing the trivial, every decision demands an answer which must be deeper than, “I am just going to do what I want to do.”
I pray that you would spend some time thinking about what is important and what is trivial. I pray that you would make courageous decisions and dedicate your time and resources to that which is important. Life is too short and important to waste it on the trivial.
