The Weight of Necessity

"Remember your Creator during your youth: when all possibilities lie open before you and you can offer all your strength intact for his service. The time to remember is not after you become senile and paralyzed! Then it is not too late for your salvation, but too late for you to serve as the presence of God in the midst of the world and the creation. You must take sides earlier--when you can actually make choices, when you have many paths opening at your feet, before the weight of necessity overwhelms you." --Jacques Ellul on Ecclesiastes 12

One of my personal assignments recently was to create a life mission statement. To facilitate this, I planned to spend a full day with God, looking over old journal entries and things that have really sparked something in my heart. Despite my excitement about doing it, it was still hard to schedule the time.

What struck me this quote from Jacques Ellul was the sense of urgency in deciding where to put our strength. There are a million little things that I could do this week. Many of them are very important and need to get done. But are they taking me in the right direction? Have I stepped back and spent time listening to God, asking what His purpose is for me? Or are my actions always a response to the expectations and demands of others?