Are You a Ten, Twenty, or Thirty-Year Lifer?

“For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and still ministering to the saints” (Heb. 6:10).

Hey Gang:  If this epistle sounds a little frazzled, keep in mind in the past thirty hours we have driven five hundred miles to spend a few hours with the youth- of my bride’s brother’s family.   When we heard the six kids were going to assemble, from various places around the country, it took no discussion -  we would crash the party!

Why?  Because we have been commissioned by Abba Father to be “Seed Planters”.  Oh, by the way that same commisson was placed on you by Jesus when He said, “Go, into all the world”, even to your own kin folks.  Was it a good investment of time; we will not know results until eternity.  That is not my responsibility.  We are planters, God is the harvester. 

As we drove across the Turnpike we witnessed the seed planting principle hundreds of times, as the farmers were in the field planting their crops with the faith that there would be a harvest - in the not too distant future.

In the work that we have done with hurting children and families, that has been our prayer:  ‘Lord, we will do the planting, You do the fertilizing, cultivating and harvesting.  We learned very early that, if we placed our full attention on the harvest we would soon “burn out”!

I have also learned, over the years, that time spent on the road can be a time of rich communication with Father God.  My bride often said, “I try to go along with him to keep his mind busy in talk so that another new idea would not surface in his brain that the staff and I would have to develop and implement.”  Yesterday was no different. 

A few years back, more than I like to think about, I ran into a guy, (in book form) by the name of Gar Trusley.   He was a research kind-of-person who studied “what made us tick”.   I was caught up in his work because it was not a pie-in-the-sky type of research but very practical and I could could glean some good practical knowledge.

One of his research projects centered on a problem with the guards at Jackson Prison.  It seemed like there was a lethargy in attitude that had become a consuming fire and had infected many of the guards.  A fire that had resulted in increased sick days and even resignations of some of the more experienced workers.   

His basic modus operandi was to have the guards make a list of their top ten priorities - if they received the tragic news that they had an incurable disease and would be dead in thirty days.  He found that most of the lists, although different, also had similarities.  On the top of most lists were three things:“Get right with God”; “Get right with my family”; “Get right with my neighbors”.  

He then challenged them to make a second list, right beside the other one, and list the ten points in order of current priorities in their lives.  In a very high percentage, the top three priorities listed on the first list were on the bottom of the second list!  His point was not a religious one, but rather that point one in their minds and hearts was “to get right with God”. Now as long as that remained on the bottom of their priority list, there would be an emptiness in their chest cavity that was just the size and shape of God.

He also strongly suggested to them that when they got home from work that night, they should get out the lawn mower and cut the grass, or if there is are things on the ‘honey do’ list, do one to completion.  For forty hours a week, in the prison environment you are facing two continuous issues that we were not designed to live with.  First, you never see the completion of your work and second, we are not designed to be in a totally negative environment for forty hours of our week.

When asked what was the one priority that they look for, all agreed it was weekend and vacation.  Gar’s final assessment was the guards at become like the ones they were watching, “ten, twenty, thirty- years to life”.    

How about you?  What would your top ten priorities of life be?  Are you investing your time in the top three? or the bottom three?   Are you a ten, twenty or thirty-year to life, kind of person? Or are you a seed planter? Planting seeds that have eternal value.  Keep in mind Jesus said, “You did it to the least of these, My brethren”.

Blessings,

Gramps