When I think of my priorities, several things come to mind. First, my relationship with God. This should not come as a surprise to anyone that the supreme author of creation should get the priority position.

Second, my wife. There is no person more special and worthy of my total devotion than her.

Third, other relationship to whom that Lord has given me including my family, my church, my friends, and community.

Fourth, the need to care for myself outside of which I would not be able to meet the priorities above. This includes eating right, staying fit, and getting sufficient sleep.

Fifth, the other tasks with which the Lord has entrusted me that fall outside of the above relationships. This might include work and blogging.

Needless to say that other priorities have come before blogging in the past several days. I like lists and, when of priorities, are helpful in determining what comes first. Every once and a while, I look at the 'stuff' of my day compared to this list of priorities to find that I'm all out of wack. When blogging or sleep comes before my wife, my community, or my relationship with the Lord--something has to change.

Priorities wouldn't be significant outside of time because whatever wouldn't be accomplished first wouldn't matter because second and first become irrelevant. Just as a fish doesn't understand what it is like to be wet (until it's beached, of course), without time priorities simply don't matter. Time itself is the great enemy of life for we all race against only to reach and end and die. So, if at the end we die, what is the value of priorities?

Stewardship. Life and the 'stuff' of life has been entrusted to us while all of heaven waits to see how we will respond. Those who have been given much are as vulnerable to poor stewardship as those who have been given little. It does not matter, in term of eternity, whether we now have little or much; what matters is how we use what we have been given.

I have had a lot of time over that past 6 months. I've used very little of it wisely. Why? Blogging. With the exception of a little break near Christmas, I wrongly invested this wealth of time in the pleasure of blogging.

Blogging is not bad to be sure. But when I act toward blogging like I acted towards my wife just before we were married, as a priority, it's a bit misplaced. Before my wife and I were married, I thought about her, mediated on her, desired to know more about her; when I was away from her I was thinking about her, when I was with her I was immersed in her, etc. Obviously, when I obsess over blogging like this, it has becomes quite the misplace priority.

Who do I offend when I misplace my priorities? Some might say, "No one. Do what you want for your own pleasure and forget about the rest." But I, and other Christians, reject this hedonism. When I misplace my priorities, I offend the one who have given me my time; the Lord. Consider the boy who loves playing with his Christmas present his mom gave him but neglects his mom's request to clean his room. Life exists with responsibilities and discipline ought to follow the child whose priorities has offended his responsibility to the one who gave the gift.

See, I hope to only have 5 or 6 decades left; but, in reality, it could all end much sooner--for you too. At the end of it all, I don't want to have wasted my life on blogging or by investing in the things on the bottom of the priority list. From a strictly utilitarian perspective, it wouldn't make sense to flip the priority list upside down--but there's more.

I don't want to have offended the one who have me the time that I have. I want to be a good steward with the time, money, relationships, and faith that I have been given. No, I don't have a lot; but that which I do have, I am asking the Lord to help me to use in a manner that pleases him--the giver.