What Was, Is, and Always Will Be the True Priority for Every Human Being

I am nothing, if not a hypocrite. I know that.

I can judge in my heart those who seem to be to be overly committed to sport or leisure, when I find myself consumed with technology and order. I puzzle over those over impassioned by politics, while I lose myself in a gluttonous consumption of cinema.

The list could be multiplied.

There are many good things which should command our attention, and there is much need for rest and leisure. I take no shots at those things, just at my ability to justify my own passions while questioning those of others.

So, it is good for me to be reminded of true priority. This is from the must read classic Knowing God by J. I. Packer. Good for a Sunday morning reflection:

“Finally: we have been brought to the point where we both can and must get our life’s priorities straight. From current Christian publications you might think that the most vital issue for any real or would-be Christian in the world today is church union, or social witness, or dialogue with other Christians and other faiths, or refuting this or that -ism, or developing a Christian philosophy and culture, or what have you. But our line of study makes the present-day concentration on these things look like a gigantic conspiracy of misdirection. Of course, it is not that; the issues themselves are real and must be dealt with in their place. But it is tragic that, in paying attention to them, so many in our day seem to have been distracted from what was, is, and always will be the true priority for every human being — that is, learning to know God in Christ.” (page 254)