How to Create Urgency in Life

Making the Lord Jesus Christ the center of my life is important to me. Its hard. I have to work at it. I decided a long time ago that it was important to me. It needs to me urgent. Now if I can just get around to doing it . . . . .

What is urgency?

Alan Lakein's in his book, How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life, lists three lifetime Questions you should ask yourself to determine if you are getting what you want out of life. The third question is “If I knew now I would be struck dead by lightning six months from today, how would I live until then?” This question introduces the urgency factor into my life.

The time component is six months. Now all I have to do is figure out what is important enough for me to spend my time doing. If it is important enough to do in my last six months, maybe it is important enough for me to be doing all the time. Including right now. Who knows, maybe I only have six months left to live and I just don't know it.

Why is urgency important?

One of my college roommates has brain cancer. He is fighting for his life. His cancer has moved him closer to God. He has a passion to know God and make Him known to all those in his sphere of influence.

We discussed how to motivate people to have the same passion without insisting that they get brain cancer. He had been thinking about that a lot. He thought it required a sense of urgency. When you have brain cancer, you have a sense of urgency.

The fact of the matter is, I don't know when I am going to die. I might be struck by lightening tomorrow. Or die in a car accident. Or a sudden heart attack. Or drown. Or choke. Or some other freak accident. Only God knows the exact moment I will die, and He is not telling.

Regardless, if I live six months, sixty months, or sixty years. My life is still short in God's time frame. He measures by eternity. Not minutes, or months, or years. Eternity. And by eternity's measure, my life is short.

God says my life is but a breath. I can walk outside on a cold day. I can inhale deeply, as deep as I can. Then I can exhale long and hard. I can actually see my breath turn into steam. Then its gone. Thats how long my life is in God's time frame. If that's not an urgent time perception, I don't know what is!

How do I develop a sense of urgency?

Society and Satan have trained me to believe there will always be time later to do the important things. There is no perception that time it short. And I have been trained to believe that nothing takes that long to do any way.

Need to get rich quick? Play the lottery!

Need to lose weight fast? Take a pill!

Need to get my college degree fast? I can do it on-line in 9 months!

I have developed some tools to help me combat Society and Satan. This is how I do it.

1. I plan my life to figure out what I really want.

To remember what is important, I do regular life planning. I have for over 30 years. Every year I re-evaluate my life goals. Then each month I review them to make sure I am on track. Doing the things I consider most important.

There are lots and lots and lots of programs out there to help you develop your life goals and purpose. Maybe I will review some of them put them on this web site later.

2. Carry a list of life goals

After I have re-evaluated my life goals for the year, I write them down on a 3x 5 card. I only have nine goals, so they fit on a 3 x 5 card. Most experts say that nine is too many, but it works for me. I carry the card with me every where I go. I try to review it several times a day, every day.

I know people who post them on the wall in their office. Or on the mirror in the bathroom. Or over the kitchen sink. Or near the dashboard of their car. Or on the inside of their daily planner. The important thing is that they are visible and that I give attention to them.

3. Carry a list of ten day goals

I break my life goals down to 5 year, annual, and monthly goals. Then I figure out what I want to get done in the next 10 days. I write these on a 3 x 5 card as well. The current card has six tasks on it.

I carry that card with me every where I go. I try to review it several times a day, every day. I cross of the items on this list as I complete them.

4. Carry a list of daily tasks to do

The last thing I do at the end of every day is plan the next day. I have been doing it for 10 years. I carry this card with me and I review it dozens of times every day. I cross of the items on this list as I complete them.

Reviewing my goals reminds me that I do have important things that I think God has asked me to do. I want to be faithful to get those things done! I want to hear “Well done good and faithful servant” when I meet my Maker!

The second concept of urgency is a perception that time is short. Here are some tools I use to remind me that time is short.

5. Memorize verses on urgency

The verses listed below stir my soul. They remind me of my place in eternity. So I memorized them. Now I have them available all the time as a reminder.

James 4:14
“Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.”

Psalm 39:4,5,11
“Show me, O LORD, my life's end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life. You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is nothing before you. Each man's life is but a breath. “You rebuke and discipline men for their sin; you consume their wealth like a moth – each man is but a breath.”

Psalm 144:4
“Man is like a breath; his days are like a fleeting shadow.”

1 Chronicles 29:15
“We are aliens and strangers in your sight, as were all our forefathers. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope.”

Practical discipleship tips for memorizing the word of God

6. Pray while walking in a cemetery.

I like to pray while I am walking in a cemetery. Walking in a cemetery always brings a certain sense of urgency. It is a reminder that all these people lived and worked on the face of the earth at one time. Just like me. Now they are unable to do that. Their time is up. Their breath is gone. Their vapor dissipated.

Someday others will walk through the cemetery and I will be there. My planning and to do lists will be history. I will have made my impact. I will have done what God ask me to do. Or I won't. But I can't do anything about it then. So I have to act now,

7. Carry a picture of a headstone with you.

Three years ago a friend of mine showed me a picture he carried in his Bible. It was a picture of the headstone of a friend of his. The man had died in his 40's and the picture was taken at the grave side service. My friend carried it in his Bible to remind him that life was short.

Now I do the same thing.

8. Share the gospel with some one.

Nothing helps me focus on the shortness of life like sharing the gospel. Sharing the gospel brings the spiritual battle alive to me. It raises my awareness of eternal matters. It correctly aligns the important things in my life with the shortness of time available to me.

Other activities might lull me into a sense of security. Sharing the gospel shakes me free from that lull.

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