The big rocks
An expert in time management was speaking to a group of business students and, to drive home a point, used an illustration those students will never forget.
As he stood in front of the group of high-powered overachievers he said, “Okay, time for a quiz” and he pulled out a one-gallon mason jar and set it on the table in front of him. He also produced about a dozen fist-sized rocks and carefully placed them, one at a time, into the jar.
When the jar was filled to the top and no more rocks would fit inside, he asked, “Is this jar full?”
Everyone in the class yelled, “Yes.”
The expert replied, “Really?”
He reached under the table and pulled out a bucket of gravel. He dumped some gravel in and shook the jar causing pieces of gravel to work themselves down into the spaces between the big rocks. He then asked the group once more, “Is the jar full?”
By this time the class was on to him. “Probably not,” one of them answered.
“Good!” he replied. He reached under the table and brought out a bucket of sand. He started dumping the sand in the jar and it went into all of the spaces left between the rocks and the gravel. Once more he asked the question, “Is this jar full?”
“No!” the class shouted. Once again he said, “Good.” Then he grabbed a pitcher of water and began to pour it in until the jar was filled to the brim. Then he looked at the class and asked, “What is the point of this illustration?”
One student raised his hand and said, “The point is, no matter how full your schedule is if you try really hard you can always fit some more things in it!”
“No,” the speaker replied, that’s not the point. The truth this illustration teaches us is: If you don’t put the big rocks in first, you'll never get them in at all.
What are the 'big rocks' in your life?
Before you begin answering consider your response carefully.
Are the ‘big rocks’ in your life your career, your family, your home, your church?
Or, are the ‘big rocks’ in your life God, the Son, and the Holy Ghost?
Now, most of us would not list our ‘big rocks’ as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. And this is my point.
These are the ‘big rocks’!
The other so-called ‘big rocks’: our career, our family, our home, our church are recipients of our putting the true ‘big rocks’ in first.
Our understanding of God, of Christ, and the Holy Ghost (divine Science -- the laws of God and His creation) are what resolves our career issues, our family issues, our home issues, and our church issues.
And, like the story proves, if we don’t put these big rocks in first we’ll never get them in.
If we don’t first get a clearer sense of God, a deeper sense of the Son, and a more thorough understanding of the divine laws that bind them then we won’t be able to fit them into our lives at all.
Have you ever started your day by getting a lot done and saying to yourself,
“Wow! I’ve been really productive this morning.
I’ve gotten so much done! I got everything done except I haven’t read my Lesson yet!”
That is a sign that we are not putting the big rocks in first. It’s a sign that we are allowing our priorities to get mixed up.
Remember, it was Emerson who said, “The cart before the horse is neither beautiful nor useful.”
Ok.
So we’ve identified the ‘big rocks’: God, the Son, and the Holy Ghost or divine laws of God.
Now, what do we do with them?
We put them first in our lives. We live in a way that puts God first, that puts the Son first, and that employs the Holy Ghost in our lives.
St. Matthew confers Jesus’ teaching like this: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.”
Seeking the kingdom of God first and foremost brings satisfaction, holiness, health, and peace.
The carnal mind, an aspect of thought that seeks materiality, wants us to seek everything else first.
It wants us to finish that project, balance those books, bake that cake, tinker with that engine, grade those papers, return that email.
It even approves of elements of thought that are degrading and harmful such as hatred, dishonesty, fear, and anger.
But, through prayer we learn to seek God first, then “all these things shall be added unto you.”
We’re talking about putting first things first, refusing to get the cart before the horse. We’re talking about spiritual priorities.
We’re talking about seeking God first.
We’re talking about the ‘big rocks’: God, the Son, and the Holy Ghost being first in our lives.
Today, we can turn from the carnal-mind thinking to God and prayerfully wash our thought of all impurities.
We can put God first each day, each morning, each moment. Doing this we’ll find anger dissolving into love, hatred into peace, and fear into trust. In short, we’ll find God here with us.
We’ll find the Son, God’s creation in His image and likeness. And, we’ll find the Holy Ghost, the laws of God embracing, guiding, and governing us.
