There's a well-known story about a business professor who told her class she was going to give a quiz on time management.

She set a one-gallon, wide-mouthed Mason jar on the table. Then she carefully placed about a dozen golf-ball-sized rocks inside, until no more would fit. "Is this jar full?"

"Yes," the class said.

"Really?" She reached under the table and pulled out a bucket of gravel. She poured some in and shook the jar, and the gravel worked its way down into the spaces between the rocks. "Is the jar full?"

By now the class was onto her. "Probably not."

"Good!" Out came a bucket of sand. It sifted into all the spaces between the rocks and the gravel. "Is this jar full?"

"No!" the class shouted.

"Good!" Then she took a pitcher of water and poured until the jar was filled to the brim.

"So," she asked, "what's the point?"

One student raised his hand. "No matter how full your schedule is, if you try really hard, you can always fit more in!"

"No," she said. "The point is this: If you don't put the big rocks in first, you'll never get them in at all."

Most of us know what our big rocks are. That's not usually the problem. The problem is the sand. The emails. The errands. The phone. A hundred small, urgent things that pour in first and fill every space.

Jesus once visited the home of two sisters, Mary and Martha. Martha was busy in the kitchen. Mary sat at his feet and listened. When Martha finally complained, Jesus said to her, gently, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing." (Luke 10:41-42)

Notice what the one thing was. It wasn't another task. It wasn't doing more for Jesus. It was sitting at his feet… and receiving.

Maybe that's the biggest rock of all. Not something we accomplish, but time we make to be with the One who loves us.

What would it look like to put that rock in first today?

Prayer: God of grace, our days are often filled with a flurry of activity. So often we are worried and distracted by many things. Slow us down. Help us put you front and center, not as one more thing to do, but as the One in whom we rest. Today we pray especially for those who feel the weight of the world on their shoulders. Meet each of us at the deepest point of our need, and grant us your peace. Amen.

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