Even amongst all the craziness, this year has flown by! But, Father, not one minute of it caught You unaware. You have been in control and with us all along! Praise Your holy name!
Luke 19:11-27 (<<click here to read the passage)
I am familiar with the 80/20 rule but never really knew that it is based on what is known as the Pareto principle. This principle is attributed to Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto who came up with the concept way back in 1896.
I thought it pertained to 20% of the people doing 80% of the work. That may factor into the concept to some degree but at its core, the overall principle deals with how things get done.
Say that we have a list of things that need doing. If we looked at our list honestly, we’d acknowledge that some things should be a higher priority than others. Where we run into trouble is putting off the most important things because they are more difficult. Instead, we spend our time doing the things that are easier to accomplish but in the whole scope of things they are not very important and have very little impact on how we move forward. Interestingly enough, more times than naught, it breaks down to 20% of those things needing to be a priority and the other 80% really aren’t that important in the scheme of things.
In my years at Kohl’s, this concept was fleshed out many times over. We had numerous associates who could busy themselves (and I use that phrase very loosely) for an entire shift and accomplish very little. Other associates – and these were much fewer in number – were able to knock out all kinds of projects on their shift because they were able to identify important tasks, regardless of difficulty, and got them done.
As followers of Christ, it is vitally important that we identify things of high priority and take action to see those to completion. Our problem is those things are more difficult and it’s much easier to fiddle around doing little piddly things that are really not that important in the big picture of God’s Kingdom.
Jesus commanded his disciples (and that includes us!) in Matthew 28:19-20a,
Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations [help the people to learn of Me, believe in Me, and obey My words], baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you… AMP
That’s what Jesus’ parable in today’s verses is talking about. He has given us all the tools we need to accomplish the task at hand – not just some of us…all of us. And as His followers, we must wisely use the time and resources we’ve been given. He is coming back and even if we are called home before His return, we will be held accountable for how we handled our share of the “silver” given to each of us.
May our goal be to here our King say,
“Well done! You are a good servant. You have been faithful…” Luke 19:17a NLT
Nov 1st, 2020, Sun, 7:51 pm
