Reflection:
What is My Priority?
I know a woman who is a brilliant attorney. She graduated from a prestigious law school and could be a partner in her law firm soon, if she so chose. But her priority is her husband and children, not working sixty or seventy hours each week, and I imagine there are lots of people whose lives mirror what they consider most important. Priority is important.
In today’s first reading, we are reminded of how the Israelites had been in exile in Babylon. God’s temple in Jerusalem had been destroyed, but King Cyrus of Persia issued a decree allowing the Jews to return to Jerusalem, specifically to rebuild the temple. When they returned home, however, they began by rebuilding their own individual homes. They must have thought that their own personal comfort was more important than God’s house. But God saw into their hearts, and lovingly sent them the prophet, Haggai, who helped them, “consider their ways.”
Remember how, towards the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus declares, “Where your treasure is there your heart will be”? Priority.
Years ago, I was chaplain at Bellarmine University in Kentucky. One of our students was in pre-med, and after he got his MD, he practiced in a small, rural county in Eastern Kentucky, because the state had offered to help him pay his tuition if he worked there for three years. When he completed paying his med school debt, however, Dr. Matt chose to continue practicing in that poor county; he had fallen in love with the good people, and he wanted to stay. Priority.
These days, God continues to send prophets into our midst. Today, I will be intentional about what is important in my life. Priority.
