Rocks in a Jar - Fill ‘er up…maybe

You’ve no doubt seen the lesson with the rocks in a jar. The teacher takes a jar and fills it up with rocks. It seems full. But then she adds some little pebbles to fit in the cracks, and now you are sure it is full. But again she adds some sand in around the edges and you are see that there is absolutely no more room. But then just to mess with you she puts in some water over the whole thing. You’ve learned something. 

Consider the rocks in your jar the things you do with your life. The rocks are the big things you want to make sure you do in 2022. Be a wonderful grandparent. Take walks every morning. Send cards to your friends on their birthday. These are your priorities, the things you want to do first when you have competing choices. 

Let’s say your jar gets full of pebbles, sand, and water – that is, the things that crowd your good life and make it not so good. If your jar is full of these pebbles and sand (the things you’d rather not do), where will you put your rocks (the things you really do want to do)? You won’t have anywhere to put them, unless of course, you put them in first. 

We all know how easy it is for the things that we don’t really think are important to become the substance of our lives. For some of us, it’s looking at screens all day. For others, it’s reading romance novels. For others, it’s a hobby or an addiction or a mood. Before we know it – poof – the valuable time we’ve been given is gone, spent on virtually nothing. 

That’s where resolutions come in, and this time of year, New Year’s Resolutions. We make resolutions because we want to make some changes. We want to make sure to put our rocks in first, so that at the end of 2022 our jar isn’t full of insignificant pebbles and sand, and no important rocks.  How about you? Did you make resolutions this year? (Have you broken them yet?) Have you thought about it and haven’t gotten that far yet? Or have you resolved not to resolve? Whichever camp you are in, you are very familiar with the February blues. By February, most people’s New Year’s Resolutions are as good as cuneiform tablets. 

I wish you all the best this year in making the changes you want to make, in putting the important rocks in your jar, and in fulfilling your priorities! Go get ‘em! Here’s to 2022 being better than the last couple. 

Let me end with the thing that is more encouraging to me than anything else in the world. God, too, has priorities, the things he values more than anything else. In general, it’s humanity. In specific, it’s you. Let me explain. Of all the creatures in the world, humans are the ones with a consciousness. We know we exist, far beyond just instinct, and we create and evaluate and rejoice and lament and all that. In that way, we are made in the image of God. The most important things in God’s universe are God’s humans. Sounds good! But what about me? Our Scriptures, and the history that you can learn about, is that you are the most important human (okay, along with all the other most important humans). God Himself came to rescue you because you are his priority. God sent his Son Jesus on a rescue mission to die and to rise for you. You are God’s rock in his jar. Believe it, and don’t jump out! 

Let the truth that you are loved infinitely by God be the biggest rock in your jar this year. Start there, and add in all the other rocks that will make this year better than the last. God be with you in 2022!

Originally posted in the Clarence Bee, January 6, 2022.