What's Important to You

This question is really broad and will have multiple answers. What I have learned is important to me greatly depends on the situation at the time. If you are traveling somewhere and you drank a 44oz. drink…in about an hour or so I know what’s going to be the most important thing to you. If you have gone three days without eating, I know what’s going to be important to you. If you are driving somewhere and you notice your gas tank is about empty and it is 50 miles to the next gas station, I know what’s really important to you.

It’s kind of sad that we have to be in a crisis situation before we realize what’s important to us. A husband and wife can be in an extreme intense argument concerning who’s supposed to take out the trash and get a phone call that their child was just hit by a car. Immediately the argument ceases and their thoughts are instantly drawn to the greater importance.

The quickest way to determine what is important to us is to have a crisis in our life. This quickly helps us to determine what really matters. On September 11, 2001 our country was attacked by terrorist. For a brief time everything in our country stopped to evaluate what was truly important to us. For the first time in over a century our home soil had been attacked. The skies were silent for about 3 days and since I worked at the airport during this time I definitely felt the eeriness of the quiet skies. For a brief time the churches were filled during this time of horror, but once comfort was found again many resumed their former lives and vacated the churches.

Adversity will always be a part of our lives and there’s nothing we can do to stop it. What we do have control over is how we deal with it and respond. We all have our personal adversities of loss, illness, fears and other problems. Except for 9/11, my generation has never felt the severity of national plight. We as Americans have become prideful and believe we are beyond the grasp of famine and destruction just as many other major empires in history thought before they fell.

The beauty of adversity is that it brings people together. I’ve always liked to watch disaster movies because it put everyone on the same playing field and brought them together. The CEO, doctor, mechanic, housewife and homeless guy were just people trying to survive together. I know we can’t sit around worrying about what might happen, but it may be prudent to stop occasionally and ponder the many things we should be grateful for and take nothing for granted.

There are many people at this very moment being diagnosed with cancer, getting a phone call that a loved one just died, discovering their child has a drug problem or just lost their job of 25 years. This may be you or someone you know. If this is you then allow others to comfort you and if this is someone you know, then comfort them. The Holy Spirit is referred to as, “The Comforter.” But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of Truth, which proceeds from the Father, He shall testify of Me. John 15:26 Allow God and His Holy Spirit to comfort you and use you to comfort others. Without Him, there is no hope!

Sometimes what I do to evaluate what is really important is I ask, in 200 years from now is this really going to matter? Take a moment a think about what is really important to you.