Majoring or Minoring?

Thomas Jefferson reminds us: "Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you." I had the opportunity to work with two college-aged volunteers at our hospital the other day. As we began to share a little bit about the task we needed to accomplish that afternoon, we had a little downtime to just share a little bit about each other. I asked them what they were doing now that they were out of high school. One of them was quite certain - studying to be a trauma surgeon - while the other almost seemed directionless. She thought she wanted to go one way with a career, but then decided against it, so took a semester off to discover what it was she wanted to do. While this is not uncommon, it is often in the "doing" rather than the "not doing" that we discover our direction.

Trust the Lord completely, and don’t depend on your own knowledge. With every step you take, think about what he wants, and he will help you go the right way. (Proverbs 3:5-6 ERV)

The most important "action" we take is toward relationship with Jesus. The next actions that make or break us are those toward relationship with each other. There are really no other actions that matter more than these. While it is good to have a "determined course", I can understand how it can be very overwhelming at times to actually "know" where it is we are to be headed. Keeping in mind the instruction to love the Lord our God with all our hearts, minds, and souls - then to love each other as ourselves - we make a good start in the "right direction" every time! All other actions that flow from these will be "right" or "true".

George Eliot reminds us: "Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together."  I don't think it uncommon that many of us are looking to do the "great things", frequently missing that they are accomplished not in the "huge steps" we take, but in the consistency of the small ones we are taking!  While "big steps" are necessary sometimes, it is the much smaller ones that either make us or break us. Maybe you have heard it said that we have to be aware of majoring in the minors or minoring in the majors. It is so important to keep the "order" of our actions correct if we are to not drift into minoring in the majors. There are just some things that should not be compromised and this list begins with our relationship with Jesus, then moves into our relationships with each other. All other actions don't matter until these are right! Just sayin!