Making Space
There has been a lot of discussion in my group of friends about the need for space. Space for self, space for family, space for God, space for X,Y, and Z. I know we are not alone in our struggle for space. And I was reminded today of a great visual lesson that I saw at a Young Life Leader training ages ago, maybe you have seen this annalogy before but I think today it bears repeating.
The presenter had a large glass container and filled the containers with large stones until they reached the lip of the jar and asked us if it was full. Of course we nodded along. But she then pulled out a bag of smaller pebbles and poured them into the space surrounding the rocks. amazingly they fit. Once again we were asked if the jar was full. Not wanting to be tricked again we hesitantly said, yeah it's full. But, then out came a bag of sand which was added to the glass container. Okay, now there was clearly no more room in the jar for anything else, or so we thought until she poured a pitcher of water into the mix. Amazingly, the jar held all the things. It was not full with the stones, there was still a lot of extra space that got filled in by the other things along the way. The thing is, if she put the same stuff in the jar in a different order it never all fit, in fact it made quite a mess, sand and water over flowing on to the table and floor.
The life lesson is that the stones represent the important things in life. We have to put them in first and the other things like the stones, sand and water are the less important. If we put the less important in before the important life gets messy, we feel overwhelmed and we don't have space for the important things.
Seems like the first step in creating space thus needs to be figuring out the important stones in your life. give them space first, then fill in with the less important things. For me, it feels like this vessel may need to be dumped out and refilled now and then in order to get things in the right place. Speaking from experience the first big Rock needs to be Jesus, once He is in place, it is easier to sort the stones from the filler and get them in right order.
The presenter had a large glass container and filled the containers with large stones until they reached the lip of the jar and asked us if it was full. Of course we nodded along. But she then pulled out a bag of smaller pebbles and poured them into the space surrounding the rocks. amazingly they fit. Once again we were asked if the jar was full. Not wanting to be tricked again we hesitantly said, yeah it's full. But, then out came a bag of sand which was added to the glass container. Okay, now there was clearly no more room in the jar for anything else, or so we thought until she poured a pitcher of water into the mix. Amazingly, the jar held all the things. It was not full with the stones, there was still a lot of extra space that got filled in by the other things along the way. The thing is, if she put the same stuff in the jar in a different order it never all fit, in fact it made quite a mess, sand and water over flowing on to the table and floor.
The life lesson is that the stones represent the important things in life. We have to put them in first and the other things like the stones, sand and water are the less important. If we put the less important in before the important life gets messy, we feel overwhelmed and we don't have space for the important things.
Seems like the first step in creating space thus needs to be figuring out the important stones in your life. give them space first, then fill in with the less important things. For me, it feels like this vessel may need to be dumped out and refilled now and then in order to get things in the right place. Speaking from experience the first big Rock needs to be Jesus, once He is in place, it is easier to sort the stones from the filler and get them in right order.
I don't know about you, but it is time for me to get all the stuff out, do a little sorting and then put the big stones in place. So, my question to you is, what are your big rocks?
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