The Urgent is Always Important

“As we ask in faith, let us urgently go in humble obedience to every town and village to preach, teach, and heal in the power of the Holy Spirit for the glory of His name among the nations. ”

Dwight Eisenhower, the American army general and statesman who served as the 34th President of the United States, famously said “What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.” This statement was used to create a time management tool known as the Eisenhower Matrix. Stephen Covey helped popularize Eisenhower’s concept in his book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. The Eisenhower Matrix results in a simple productivity tool that can be used to determine the urgency of one's tasks. The idea is to help people be more proactive and less reactive in their decisions. Although useful for organizational and administrative functions, the concept that urgency and importance are mutually exclusive, and often at odds with one another, is foreign to the Biblical account of how Jesus determined the urgency of His task. 

Jesus focused on the urgent because it was important. Matthew 9:35 is a good summary of Jesus’ life and ministry. “And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness.” First, we see where Jesus went. Jesus went to all the cities and villages, the urban and rural. Second, we see what Jesus did. He taught, preached, and healed. The next verse tells us why this was important, “when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.” Jesus went where He went, and did what He did because people were lost and in need of the Good Shepherd. Jesus said that He came “to seek and to save the lost.” For Jesus, the importance of going to every town and village to preach, teach and heal was driven by the urgency that the lost be found and reconciled to God.

People who do not know Jesus as Lord and Savior are still lost. The lost are slipping away into an eternity without hope at an alarming rate. 55.3 million people die each year. 151,600 people die each day. 6,316 people die each hour. 105 people die each minute. Feel the weight of those numbers. The need is urgent. The measure of our response should be no less urgent. That is why we are asking God for a gospel-movement among every least-reached people group in our generation. We need to be reactively proactive. As we ask in faith, let us urgently go in humble obedience to every town and village to preach, teach, and heal in the power of the Holy Spirit for the glory of His name among the nations.