Every person has their things they have to do, and their things they'd rather do. If'n I had my druthers, I'druther be singing. But I have to balance my time, and apply it wisely, lest anything that must have attention be missed, or anything I'd prefer to have attention be neglected.
How does one balance?
There are many philosophies to managing time. "Schedule the biggest things first", "Seven Habits of...". In Real-Time we even have special scheduling algorithms for dealing with tasks. FIFO, Round Robin, FIFO with priority Inheritance, LIFO... We schedule data using elevator policies, best-fit, first-fit, etc. But my question at hand, is how do I prioritize multiple first priorities?
Yes, Dan has said yes too many times.
Specifically, for the Christian man, how does one properly balance important priorities outside the confines of the church community against/with/alongside those within the church body?
I've struggled with this for over a year. Now it's a reality and I have to find a balance, but I'm afraid the balance I believe to be 'right' will not be perceived as such by all involved. So now I have to prioritize who to disappoint. :-)
I'm part of the 'servant leadership' of a local body of Christ, and as such I have obligations to the people of the church as well as to my God. These are obviously high priorities.
I'm also part of the leadership of a local school-related organization. Because of the infamous 'separation of church and state' interpretation here in the states, this means a certain degree of separation from the church be maintained. Motivations related to Spiritual matters simply have no bearing on the motivations, methods, or operation of this organization.
How does one separate 'man' from 'Christian man' in the right places when one is talking about the SAME man?
Of course this is a gross oversimplification of the complexities involved. There are also pressures related for home, family, parenting, extended family, illness, wellness, government, and employment. The list is impressive, don't you think? And it goes on.
In Scenario 1, our hero maintains full control in all areas of his life, expertly carving a weaving path through all meetings, and comes home to help cook, clean, and whip out a couple loads of laundry. At the end of the day, the beginning of the next has already come and gone, so our hero gets little sleep, and soon begins to miss deadlines, loose concentration, and generally fail. This is no good.
In Scenario 2, he drops out of church leadership to focus on the time-sensitive effort of leading the civic organization. His daughter will only be with the organization 3 more years, and this is when they need the help. Here, we cringe for our protagonist as 'friends' from the church begin to talk about him behind his back, suggesting he's lost faith, fallen away, or been tempted by Satan to be more 'worldly'. His effectiveness in that community is diminished, and cannot be regained, because those who know he 'bailed on the position' have long memories.
In Scenario 3, he drops out of the civic organization leadership. The organization falls back into a state of disrepair, fails to grow, and his daughter may (gasp!) be bored. Is this better? His Spiritual Integrity is now not in question, regardless of the true depth of his commitment. Appearances are served.
In Scenario 4, our underdog drops out of leadership entirely, all around, because he's obviously not a leader. Leaders don't 'waffle' like this before making a decision.
(sigh)
Consider this. If as the church would desire, a man completely devoting himself to Christ turns his focus entirely inward on the body of Christ, and ignores the world outside, will he not fail to complete his core mission of seeking to save the lost? They're on the outside, after all. Furthermore, if the world continues to be led by those not intensely active in the Church, doesn't the church (and its Christian members) lose effective control over their surroundings, ultimately ensuring their own restriction and demise?
I paint a fatalistic picture, I know. There are more subtle flavors of this eventual fall from influence.
Even though I am a Christian trying to dedicate my life to Christ, I still have to buy groceries at the store, mow my lawn, live in the township, rely on the county, the state and the federal government for services and support, including protection. If the church abdicates influence at these levels of community and government, we will eventually find ourselves increasingly outside of society. It behooves the Christian Man to seek out influence, then, in the world he needs to be part of, to ensure his continued right to his Faith.
Right, so what is my point? I think I lost it a bit. My point is this. I am not a bad person for taking time from Church Leadership and investing it in a local booster organization.
Because if I don't do it, the boosters will rise up against the Christians and snuff us out?
I need to work on this justification stuff some more...
