The English preacher and author, George H. Morrison
(1866-1928), made a simple but profound observation in his book, Meditations
on the Gospels. "One of the great arts of worthy living,” he said, “is
the ability to see things in their relative importance." In other words,
our skill in discerning what is truly important will in turn determine just how
meaningful our lives will be. And the thoughts, words, actions, and people that
receive our greatest consideration indicate their place of priority in our
lives. Sacrificing what is both permanent and pertinent for the sake of
immediate gratification or momentary considerations is to play the part of a
shortsighted fool.
It's all right to live in the
moment as long as we make sure we're not living for the moment.
The verse says that Esau "despised his
birthright." He would probably have argued that "despise" was
too strong a word. Lost sight of, maybe; neglected momentarily, to be sure; but
“despised”—isn’t that too severe? (If it were today, he’d be looking for some
watered-down new translation, no doubt.) Well, the rest of the verse tells us
he ate, drank, got up, and walked out. No big deal. In less than twenty
minutes, perhaps, he had nonchalantly traded a godly heritage for a full
stomach. I think this gives us a fairly good glimpse of where his priorities
lay.
We all make foolish, even selfish, decisions from
time to time; but when our choices consistently show no appreciation for the
past and no anticipation of the future, our priorities are all wrong, and our
lives lack all perspective and proportion. And, by the way, the standard for
proportionate living is still Matthew 6: 33.
When we value trifles too much, we’re trifling with the truly valuable.
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