Time and Relationship

One of the more important things for us to understand and to get right in our lives is our time and relationship priorities. There’s always more to do than we can do, more people to serve than we can possibly serve. And so having a good understanding of time and relationships are essential. One of the ways we think about it here at Life Over Coffee is consi concentric circles. I call it, uh, my relationship map.

You see with the man in the middle, the most intimate, the tightest circle in his life, obviously is the Lord. I’m using the Lord Jesus as, uh, an illustration of this. And of course the application would be you and the Lord. And so that’s the most intimate circle in your life where he gets your best time, most transparent time, most intimate time. And then out of that would be a larger circle. And of course, in the life of Christ, we might say Peter, James and John, in your life, if you’re married, it would be your spouse.

If you’re not married, it would be your closest, most intimate friend. (···0.8s) And then the next concentric circle would be the nine apostles. That could be, uh, your children, your immediate fam family, for obvious reasons. They will know more about you than anyone else. The next concentric circle, uh, would be Mary, her friends, Nicodemus Zacchaeus. And there’s a big list of friends in Jesus’ life. And of course you would have friends as well.

The next circle would be the multitudes, and this could be the church. And I put the church here, uh, behind friends, because within the church you would have a select number of friends. You will not know everybody at your local church the way you would know, a few friends at your local church. In many churches. This is your small group. The next concentric circle, uh, is the non redeemed people who, uh, do not know the Lord. And of course, this would be others for you.

Now again, this is not static. This is a fluid document, but it just gives you a rule of thumb to think about. And, and because of the fluidity, you’ll find people who are non-REM who may become some of your most intimate friends in time. And then you’ll have some who are more intimate now who may move farther out into the multitudes. But it’s important that you understand that there has to be a prioritization as far as your relationships are concerned, or you’ll have people who are, should not be as important.

Running your life and the people who should be important like the Lord and your spouse, uh, they could miss out and not receive your care. And of course, that can ultimately damage that relationship. And so we have to recognize no is a complete sentence. And sometimes we see need to say no to some people who are pressing into us, as Jesus would do. He would pull away because his relationship with God was more important.
And so we need to recognize our time and relationship priorities.