Spiritual Hiccups - Urgency and Focus

Like very many people in our culture, my life sometimes seems overly hectic.  I'm not talking about any special pressures that come from being a pastor, but rather about a lifestyle of busyness that seems to afflict many of us.  This busyness can sometimes be draining, but at other times it is a source of pride.  Look how hard working and diligent I am, how consume I am by my busyness.  But just what is my particular busyness about?

Jesus' words to those who would follow him got me thinking about this.  He tells one would-be disciple not to go back and bury his dead father, and he tells another not to go back and say goodbye to his family.  The urgency Jesus demands contains an echo of an Old Testament story.  When the prophet Elijah calls Elisha to become his disciple, he permits Elisha to return and say farewells to his mother and father.  But Jesus seems to say that proclaiming the Kingdom that is drawing near demands a greater commitment and urgency than that required of the great prophet Elisha.

The Kingdom is the focus of Jesus' sense of urgency.  As for me, I'm not sure that my busyness has much connection to the Kingdom.  Very often, my busyness, indeed much church busyness, is about institutional maintenance that has little bearing on the Kingdom.  In fact, the Church sometimes seems to have forgotten about the Kingdom altogether.

What is it that produces the urgency and focus in my life?  Is it God's presence, Jesus' call?  Or do other things get in the way so that I hurry along, blissfully unaware of God's presence, unaware of what Jesus asks of me?  Where is the work of the Kingdom that calls me forward?  What is it that is more important than anything else?

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