It isn’t one of those movies that I have watched a lot, or have close at hand because I watch it frequently.
Seriously…I promise.
One of the few scenes I remember is of Cinderella’s step-sisters trying to jam their NBA player sized feet into Cinderella’s petite glass slipper. They tried everything to get their foot into that shoe, and why? They tried because of what it meant if it fit. Jamming something into a place where it doesn’t belong in the hopes that everything would work out how they wanted it to.
I find myself trying to do something similar with life.
If the shoe was my schedule, I am trying to jam everything into my schedule. There are things that can’t change, some things that can, some things that I don’t even enjoy or need but somehow they have found their way into my schedule.
The problem is that when too much gets wedged into my schedule, I easily lose sight of what is important.
I mean, how worried were the step sisters with the thought of if they even liked or loved the prince?
They were very willing to enter into a lifelong commitment with a man they didn’t know.
I know…I know…it is a fairy tale, but, if we think about it, are we living in a fairy tale world with our time.
Do we believe that we can have our cake and eat it too? Are we concerned with how our time affects others?
Ouch, that one hits me pretty hard. I have too many friends I haven’t touched base with recently.
I guess I have just been sitting back and evaluating my schedule because of a recent dry spell. What I see is quite a bit of evidence that leads me to see that I am trying to jam too much into a glass slipper. I am trying to jam too much of the unimportant into a space that is set up to fit the perfect balance of necessity and fun. If I try to put too much of either in my schedule I become unbalanced.
For me, I find it very easy to get busy and at the end of the day…I am just spent and have very little left in the gas tank. I find myself unsatisfied, unimpressed, and having a great desire for more. There is a reason we are supposed to work towards a daily connection with God.
I will touch on the connection a little later this week. The point is that there is plenty of time for fun, work, family, God, and everything in between. I just need to make sure I am focused, keeping the goal of meeting the NEEDS of my time and not trying to jam too much into the glass slipper of my time.
Time keeps on slippin’…slippin’…slippin’…into the future…so let’s not catch ourselves years from now looking back and wondering what we have been doing with our lives. We have a calling and a purpose. Let’s not lose sight of that. Rather, let us be about the business of living a life that matters.
2 comments:
This was/is/continues to be something I struggle with as well. One thing that helped me is setting my top 3 and then accepting less then perfect for everything else.
I'm good if I set aside time for Christ, my wife, and my children. After that, I'm willing to settle for less than perfect (this includes work and most people I work with call me a prefectionist or worse...).
For example, I love golf, but I've learned to settle for a 56 on 9 holes. I LOVE pistol shooting, but have learned to settle for hitting outside the 9/10 ring. I love riding my bike, but I'm willing to settle for my morning commutes to work and the occassional ride.
In the end, my life feels full when Christ is there, my wife is there, and my kids are there. The other stuff is fun and I look for opportunities but I have to put asside the perfectionist in me on them.
Good perspective Tim. For me, I just have to keep the important things in front of me, often something steals away my focus and I find myself, at a later time, completely off course.
Continual focus is a discipline I am trying to figure out.
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