“On the day the LORD gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the LORD in the presence of Israel: ‘O sun, stand still over Gibeon. O moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.’ So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the nation avenged itself on its enemies, as it is written in the Book of Jashar. The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. . There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the LORD listened to a man. Surely the LORD was fighting for Israel.”

I just finished reading a chapter from the book It All Goes Back In The Box, by John Ortberg. The chapter was entitled Fill Each Square with What Matters Most. Ortberg gives an illustration about filling a jar with tennis balls, sand, and water. The point is that you can put all those things in the jar if you place them in the correct order; tennis balls, sand, and water. Any other order and they won’t go in. Toward the end of the chapter he makes this statement, “God never gives anyone too much to do.”

How many times have I said that I have too much to do. If God gives us all 24 hours then He intends for me to place all that He has for me to do in that time frame. If it were not so He would stop the sun for me as He did for Joshua. But that won’t happen for me because what I am doing is not what God intended. That is a tough statement.

My hardest choices in life are between good and best, not good and bad. My faith, my family, my job all have to take their proper place and I have to place them properly in the order of my life. Anything out of place is going to cause a spill. Right now I have obligations and responsibilities but if they are spilling over then something is out of order and I need to reevaluate the use of my time.

How about you? Do you have enough time to get all those things done that seem to be important? The sun isn’t going to stop for us. Take a good look at what you are filling the square of your calendar with. God is never going to give us more time but He will give us more wisdom to know how to use it. “Fill each square with what matters most.”