If I ever get a job as a circus clown, it will have to be of the non-juggling variety, because I can’t juggle. Never could. Two things in the air at one time is my max. Throw in another thing, and without a doubt, they are all coming down.

The same is true in everyday life. When it comes to multi-tasking, I struggle. I am much better at managing just one thing at a time.

But how realistic is that?

Most of us have multiple things going on simultaneously…family responsibilities, jobs, volunteer gigs, projects, hobbies, and so on.  As I write this, for example, I am bouncing back and forth between eight or nine different tabs on my laptop. I work on one thing for a few minutes, then jump over to another, etc.

How about you, how many things do you have going right now? One too many?

First things first. In his classic book, The Effective Executive, Peter Drucker identified a few things that effective leaders do really well. One thing is they keep “first things first.” In other words, these highly productive people tend to see clearly their most important priorities and they attend to them with vigilance.

Another well-known resource management expert said basically the same thing, but a long time ago. His name is Jesus and he put it this way:

“But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.”  -Matthew 6:33

To a crowd of people that was super stressed about the juggling act of life, Jesus gave a powerful promise. Simply put, he told them if they would put God first, it would all work out.

As tempting as it is to fudge on our priorities, one of the most important things we can do when life is impossibly busy is to double-down on the main thing – our relationship with God.

Somehow when we keep the main thing the main thing, every other thing finds its place.

Happy juggling.

It’s a new day with God. Run with it.