The Rabbi’s School of Time Management

If you’ve read Steven Covey, or even sat under the instruction of one who has, you’ll be familiar with the urgent/important matrix. More than just a time management principle, it’s a solid basis for prioritizing most anything in life.

The principle breaks our activity into four quadrants that looks something like my crude sketch.

Managing life or work this way depends on being able to distinguish between important and not, and urgent and not. Often related to  crises, the Important and Urgent things are important (must be done) but are also urgent (must be done now).

Not Important and Urgent tasks look more like interruptions or distractions. These things don’t need to be done but they capture our attention because if they’re going to be done at all they need to be done now.

Not Important and Not Urgent activities don’t contribute to meeting our goals, but somehow lure us away into dorking around with them, keeping us from those things that matter.

It is understood by those who ascribe to this philosophy that high performing people and groups devote the greatest share of time and resources Important and Not Urgent activites — the prize behind Door Number Two. Important and Not Urgent are tasks that may not have time-sensitivity but are so crucial to accomplishing what we desire and becoming who we long to be.

High-value activities like planning, training and preparation.

High-value activities like exercising and eating right.

High-value activities like prayer and study and being with Jesus.

But in real life, when so much demands immediate attention, we throw out what packs the biggest punch in favor of what screams the loudest.

And so we spend more of our time on things that matter less.

I’m not teaching a class on time management, though I truly wish I’d have thought of Lazarus the last time I did. Because long before there was a Steven Covey, Jesus was already practicing one of the most foundational principles of time management ever known to man.

Jesus knew the impact of Important and Not Urgent.

Jesus got it.

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Remember that day when Jesus received word that His good friend Lazarus was sick?  The message alarmed the folks with Jesus, though He quickly assured them that “This sickness will not end in death.”

Despite His assurances, they heard an urgent message.

Lazarus did not have a cold.

He didn’t have the chicken pox.

Those who sent for Jesus believed Lazarus stood alongside death and they wanted Jesus nearby.

Lazarus was a beloved friend: This was important.

Lazarus was dying: This was urgent.

And so Jesus waited a couple of days before He did anything.

He did what?

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Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair. So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”

When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days. (John 11:1-6, emphasis added)

This was a crisis if ever there was one. Why did Jesus not drop everything? A dear friend was dying, and Jesus sat still.

Didn’t He know about the quadrants?

Didn’t He understand Urgent and Important?

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He understood. He knew important, and He knew urgent. He already told them, “This sickness will not end in death.”

But I’ll tell you what. We’ve read ahead. Before Jesus arrived, Lazarus died and mourners placed him in a tomb. No pill from Miracle Max would help here. He was not mostly dead. Lazarus was dead dead.

Did Jesus call it wrong? Was it wishful thinking?

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If I read the text again, I see Jesus never said Lazarus would not die. He didn’t say that at all. He said that the sickness would not end in death.

He knew that there was more to Lazarus’ story. He knew that sickness and death were not the end, but just the beginning.

He had something much more important in mind than the urgency of his friend’s most certain death.

Jesus looked at Lazarus and saw an opportunity to glorify God. Later on He told His disciples that while Lazarus had died, He was glad not to be there so that they might believe.

Before He called Lazarus back to life and out of the tomb, He asked, Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?

God’s glory revealed.

Important.

Jesus grasped the importance of the moment at least as well as the urgency. But He bypassed the urgent call to rescue Lazarus from death’s grip in favor of God’s glory.

Importance far exceeded Urgency.

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Now, let me tell you something. This all ended well. Since we’ve read ahead, we also know that Lazarus stumbled out of the tomb alive. The sisters had their brother, Jesus had His friend, mourning came to a stop, God got glory, and all was well in Bethany.

But it doesn’t always work that way, does it? People don’t come back. Sometimes illnesses don’t heal. Sometimes finances don’t work out. Sometimes relationships don’t mend. Sometimes we still see scars. Sometimes floodwaters don’t recede. Sometimes the new job just isn’t there. Sometimes the old one still stinks.

Sometimes the pain doesn’t end.

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We see the urgency. We cry out for relief — now.

We stand in our Urgent and Important quadrant, waving big bold letters and flashing lights.

How can God not see the urgency?

Sometimes He doesn’t see Urgent because the Important gets in the way.

There is something so important that He longs to do.

At those times, we set aside our Urgency so that we can see Importance too.

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Friends, it’s been a week of urgent, important, and everything in between. Work’s been plentiful, sleep scarce, and bleachers beckoning. My laptop and I spent a lot of time apart. Turns out it was a good time to pull out this old post from the archives. A fair reminder to me to stake out territory in the right quadrant.

For a jumbled mess of old posts on Lazarus, try here.