Stephen Covey wrote of keeping “first things first.” C.S. Lewis warned that would be impossible unless we kept “second things second.” In our world today, we must fight to keep trivial things trivial.
When we give time, energy, and undo attention to trivial things, they do not move up to become important. Rather, all things become trivial and life becomes banal or absurd. We lose sight of important things and wonder if anything is worthy of serious thought or devotion.
While driving in my car recently, I tuned my radio to get a traffic report. After I got the information I needed, I kept the radio tuned to the “all news, all the time” station to hear the “World News” at the top of the hour. This segment came from ABC rather than the local guys. One could assume these “top stories” would be of utmost importance.
The report consisted of three stories:
1. The oil leak in the gulf had finally been permanently sealed.
2. The recession had officially been declared over.
3. Lindsey Lohan had violated her parole.
I can think of at least three important lessons from these observations:
1. We need to judicially turn technology off. Not all the time. I am not anti-technology. My iPhone actually helps me get things accomplished and provides valuable information. I can even read the Scriptures more often with that device nearby. But, from time to time, we need to get unhinged from the electronics or we will become their slaves.
2. We need to fill our minds with scripture – far more than we do. It filters out, translates, interprets, and warns us of all the meaningless (but not harmless) barbs fired our way.
3. We need to find healthy aggregators of news, information, and updates about world events. Mostly, we need to hear regular reports of the advance of the gospel to all parts of the world – these are truly important things that NEVER get reported by those keeping track of every move of foolish starlets and the like.
Any suggestions of good sources of kingdom-advancing news reports? I’d like to hear how you keep trivial things trivial.
