The Tyranny of the Urgent

Exodus 16-17:  http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=ex%2016-17&version=NIV1984

            I struggle professionally with the tyranny of the urgent.  I know that I’m better off when I am working and planning ahead.  However, things pile up and what usually happens is that I spend most of my time on stuff that has to get done right now.  Several problems with that:  urgent problems have to get dealt with urgently; there’s not much space to do things excellently.  Such an approach tends to be high stress.  And when everything is done urgently there’s not much sense that you are working coherently towards larger goals.

            What in the world does that have to do with Exodus 16-17?  Israel, newly freed from slavery in Egypt, is trapped by the tyranny of the urgent.  More specifically, the urgency of their wants and needs has this terrible though predictable effect that they completely lose sight of what their God has done and is still doing for them.

            It’s pretty easy to sit at our desks or breakfast tables or couches—wherever you read these chapters—and feel all smug.  “If God had walked me through the Red Sea, you wouldn’t find me being so ungrateful,” we think.  But I’d beg to differ.  One of the easiest things in the world is to forget what the Lord has done for you.  It’s so easy to panic over the right now.  The challenges and problems of the moment always loom largest in our minds.

            Look, my favorite part of what I do is Sunday morning—love preaching, love church, love Bible study, always go home feeling good about ministry.  And part of that is because hearing the Lord’s words, receiving His grace in the Sacrament, and singing His praises focuses me on the meaning and purpose in life.  It reminds me of the big picture in which is live and in which life makes sense.  But Monday comes and there’s a hundred things on my desk and administrative tasks to get done and services to plan and articles to write and it’s pretty easy to get so bogged down in the urgent and the minutiae that I forget the big picture that gave me such joy.  (And, you know, it’s better for me than for many of you.  My vocation at least puts me in the presence of the Lord’s word throughout the week!)

            So, let’s not be too hard on Israel and their terribly short memories about the Lord and His goodness.  That forgetfulness, that surrender to what is urgent—that’s just part of our fallen nature.  If we’re tempted to be critical of Israel, perhaps these stories of their grumbling should remind us to take a look at those (too frequent!) moments when we too worry and fret about the issues that seem so large before us that we let them completely obscure the presence of our gracious Lord and God.