You’re given three large rocks, a bin, and a bag of yellow, grainy sand. You’re told that, somehow, you must fit the rocks and sand in the bin, and still be able to close the bin. Thinking this will be easy, you smile confidently and begin to open the bag of sand. Carefully pouring the sand into the bin, you wait until every last grain is in the bin, then proceed to the rocks. Putting the three large rocks in, you then grab the lid of the bin, prepared to close it. Then you realize something. There’s no way you can close the bin with the rocks on top. You can easily close the lid with the rocks out, but it doesn’t seem possible to fit them all in.
Then, it hits you. Why didn’t you put the rocks first? If you put the rocks on the bottom, then the sand will gradually sink in, filling the holes around the rocks. After rearranging it like this, you can easily shut the lid. The bin is still full of rocks and sand, but the order of importance is rearranged.
Don’t we do this in our life? We say that we’re too busy to spend time in devotions, too busy to pray, too busy to spend time listening to God. We want to put a time limit on God and say, “God, I’m giving you five minutes to speak to me. If you don’t speak to me in those five minutes, Your fault. So You’d better hurry and speak, cause I’m not waiting any longer!” We say we have such a busy schedule that we can’t fit in time with God. We say the important stuff comes first...so why doesn’t the important stuff come first? The important stuff is devotions and time with God. Yet too often, we decide that those are only the ‘if we have time’ options. Matthew 6:33 says, “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
Like the rocks and the sand, if we put the most important stuff at the bottom, the rest of the stuff can slide in around it, it’ll find room to fit somehow. If we seek God first, all the other things will work out. What comes first in your life?
Kayla Joy
