Little Pebbles, Big Rocks

You have probably heard the story floating around the emails about the professor who challenged his student’s with what’s really important in life. In case you haven’t, humor me for a minute. Story, whether true or not I’m not sure, has a strong dose of truth.

The professor came to class with a large jar filled with large rocks. He simply asked the class “Is the jar full?” Someone responded, “Sure.” He then proceeded to pour a jar of small pebbles into the jar, shaking them into the crevices between the rocks. He then asked, “Is it full now?” A little less confident, but still a positive response. The professor then poured a small jar of sand into the mix, shaking them into the last available spaces. He again asked, “Is it full?” This time the class enthusiastically said, “Sure, no more room left!” He simply walked to a faucet & poured water into the last remaining miniscule air pockets. “Now,” he said, “you can be sure it’s full.”

Now follow me here, as the story goes, the professor was trying to prove a point more about our lives than physical science. The large stones represent things most important in life, the rest in order of importance.

Jesus told His followers on a hillside a couple of thousand years again, somewhat the same message. He confronted a simple group of people who spent a good deal of time trying to address the basic needs of life. They were concerned about their leaders, their economy, the religious system, whatever dreams they were chasing, etc. They may have been wearing tunics & sandals but deep down much like people today. He said: “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and He will give you everything you need.” Matthew 6:33 NLT

So, the obvious meaning is keeping the things important first. The things God considers important first, His Kingdom. The challenge is: what are the large stones? What are the most important things? We have a saying in religious circles, “Keep the main thing, the main thing.” The question I struggle with, and the question I leave you to wrestle with is, “What are the large stones in your life?” What’s really important to you, but more importantly what’s important to God? I suppose we can’t wait for a highly creative professor to spell it out for us. The text book was handed out long ago, God’s word. So, the only way we can expect to get the order of the stones right is following the handbook.

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