MISPLACED PRIORITIES: THE AVOIDABLE TRAGEDY THAT DESTROYS DESTINIES
Writing on this topic was never in plans—not now or even in the near future, but I was motivated to do so, following an analogy one of my daughters shared with me this morning.
I guess she carried two unequal buckets of water and apparently learned great lessons from that experience. She observed that carrying a smaller bucket on the right and the bigger bucket on the left places a huge burden on the carrier because the weight of the load is felt more.
On the other hand, when this is reversed, the load is balanced and is lighter; without the carrier experiencing either pains or unwanted load. To her, a lot of people are giving the wrong things the right attention while neglecting the right things. This, therefore, places a huge burden on people’s lives and amounts to misplaced priorities. Misplaced priority is leaving the most important to pursue the unimportant, leaving the essential to run after none essentials. Hmm, she is damn correct with her analysis.
Misplaced priorities can be seen as giving more priority to something that indeed should require less priority from you at that point in time. Misplacing priorities will, therefore, lead to one losing that priority, which was supposed to be the most important. In life, the greatest tragedy is not death.
It is living without well-defined priorities, it is worse than death. In fact, it is more tragic to be alive and have a misplaced priority than to be dead. Many people are obsessed, making amazing sacrifices over the vainest of things, making enemies over worthless material things, just because their priorities are misplaced. What more can I say?
Look back at that one thing you want to kill and die for today and see what becomes of it tomorrow. Thousands today live a life of regret, sorrow, and pains just because they placed their priorities on the wrong things of life – the accumulation of wealth, sexual immorality, and self- centeredness.
Unfortunately, we forget that today’s Gold is sometimes tomorrow’s copper and refuse to settle down for something precious whose value will transcend time and ages. The truth is that we are not born just to make a living; we are born for far more than that – we are sent to live out an assignment on this plane and to a difference in this world.
You may be asking yourself now: how will one know that his\ her priorities are misplaced, what are the possible dangers of misplaced priorities and many more questions? Let me restate this, our lives are predestined for a purpose and that purpose is aligned with God’s purpose to our lives.
Therefore, whenever we begin to live a life outside what God wants from us, it becomes a misplaced priority and more like a wasted life. When a student who is sent to school to read and gain knowledge, end up putting business and some extra-curricular activities first (including sexual relationships, partying, etc.), that student has misplaced priorities.
What about a parent, be it a father or a mother who spends more time at work or thinking of how to make more money than with the family most especially his/her children, priorities have been misplaced and it comes with its dangers?
Esau misplaced his priority when he sold his birthright for pottage. Pottage is none essential when compared with a birthright. Judas Iscariot misplaced his priority when he threw away his apostleship and position among the disciple of Christ for thirty pieces of silver. Adam and Eve misplaced their priority when, because of eating the forbidden fruit, they lost the glory of God, the Garden of Eden, and fellowship with the Lord and a lot of other blessings.
A government misplaced their priority when they refuse to implement a programme that is more effective in maximizing the health of its citizens and focuses on a lesser programme that allows more deaths to occur. Churches misplaced their priorities when they focus on raising funds, the building of cathedrals, and other physical infrastructures instead of focusing on propagating this gospel of Jesus Christ, making disciplines of all nations and healing the dying world.
Evidently, there are dire consequences for misplaced priorities. As illustrated in my daughter’s analogy, the first thing it does it to place an undue burden on us. We struggle over things that naturally should have been easy for us. Time and energy that is supposed to be channeled into the right priority is now dissipated and channeled into something else, which will do little or no good to our general welfare at that point in time.
Doing the right thing, like so many people will argue, won’t help your general course, if you are not doing it at the right time. Time is one measure of life, time wasted is a life wasted and time saved is a life saved.
We experience difficulty in achieving our life’s goals because we spend so much time pursuing what should not be in the first place. Obviously, this affects us in negative ways in the long-run. Defining and pursuing our priorities saves us time and helps us to achieve our goals.
It is, therefore, important to make a decision concerning what you really want in every area of your life. Stop following the bandwagon, for if you can hit the target, you can’t see. In addition, we experience life regrets when things go wrong; either because of our actions, inactions, failure, etc. Delay caused by misplaced priorities most times lead to failure and health issues occasioned by regrets; a feeling of regret that haunts such person for the rest of his\her mortal life. Focus, interest, and commitment are lost in whatever we fail to prioritize.
When you are interested in doing something, you do it when it’s convenient, but when you are committed to something, you accept no excuses and shun distraction. So once there’s a loss of focus, interest, and commitment, failure is inevitable. The time that is supposed to be spent doing what is of greater importance is spent on unimportant things and this causes priorities to continually be moved if possible which could, in turn, result in a delay. Change your life today; don’t gamble on the future, act now without delay
Misplaced priorities cause distractions that are often difficult to overcome unless one consciously disciplines oneself into actually prioritizing what really needs to be prioritized. It is, therefore, important to wean ourselves of those things that distract us and have nothing to do with your goals.
Focusing on our priority helps us to do something, but distraction makes us avoid doing anything. What is distracting you from your priorities and life purpose? There is nothing positive about moving in the wrong direction because wrong directions only lead us to the wrong destination.
Misplaced priorities are likened to moving in the wrong directions. When moving in the wrong direction, there’s actually no positive change in your life. Life becomes stagnated – inactive, not changing, flowing, or progressing. It is better to take small steps in the right direction than big steps in the wrong direction. A stagnant life is worse than a life full of ups and downs.
A young lady in a university whose priority is to attend parties, date different guys, and engage in other self-centered activities would find it so difficult to concentrate on her studies.
Procrastination becomes preferred. The moment you lose or begin to misplace your priorities, no matter what you set your mind to do, you indirectly shift your real priorities without even realizing it. We intend to forget what our priorities are really are when we are jumbled up or preoccupied with other things that are not actually that important.
We find ourselves losing sight of what’s actually meant to be important while pursuing the trivial many. In the end, when this happens we find ourselves not being able to achieve our intended goals. Procrastination is like a credit card, it's a lot of fun until you get the bill. Dolly Mchotteney says, “Never lose sight of the things you need to do while desiring the things you want to do.”
Finally, it is time to honestly do a soul searching. Definitely, to keep to your priorities, it would sometimes mean choosing a difficult path instead of an easy one. Astonishingly, many of us devote more time identifying the ridiculous proclivities of our family members, friends, colleagues, or even complete strangers, yet are reluctant to turn that same critical eye on ourselves.
It is time to re-examine our preferences and make changes where necessary. It reflects the deep hypocrisy and self-deception when we base our decisions off of pleasure and impulsivity, hence, abandoning any consequences until they show up on our doorstep forcing their way inside.
Whether we are part of those who engage in blatant immoral or even criminal behaviors, directing our energies on ourselves and/or seemingly “healthy” or “fun” ways, it is obvious that the majority of us are way off track in one or many areas of our lives and urgently needs to refocus our lives.
To achieve this, we need to set our priorities right, spend our time rightly and wisely through appropriate time scheduling, use planning tools, get organized, stop procrastination, stay healthy, manage external time wasters (telephone, friends, unexpected visitors, meetings, emails, family obligations, and other self-centered activities) and above all, put God first in everything.
As I end this article, I wish to note that whereas most of us had put God first, in reality, we have not placed God first in everything. We attend church faithfully, listen to “Christian” music on the radio, “shut the door” on some distracting relationships that are influencing us away from God, listen to sermons consistently, fed spiritually; but, our hearts are not truly in the Lord as first.
No doubt, attending to our personal needs is also very important and needed, but nothing matters more than knowing God’s purposes for your life, and nothing can compensate for not knowing them. That is the right and the best priority in your life. Finally, as the Bible recommends, “Do not conform yourselves to the standards of this world, but let God transform you inwardly by a complete change of your mind. Then you will be able to know the will of God.”
Misplaced priorities are avoidable. Avoid them, for they are tragedies that destroy destinies and life purpose.
Enjoy the new month; the month of May 2020.
Dr Chiwuike Uba, Board Chairman, Amaka Chiwuike Foundation (ACUF), writes from Enugu.
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