I am a very driven person. I have spent years of my life studying productivity. If a new book comes out on time management or goal setting you can guarantee it is on my reading list. Productivity methods? You name it, I’ve tried it out. I have implemented concepts from Getting Things Done for years. I have set my timer for the Pomodoro Technique. I know what it means to eat the frog each morning. I have used project management software systems, mind maps, lists, time blocking, color coding, and more. At the end of a productive day, I have felt extremely satisfied with all the tasks I have crossed off the list. However, I often wonder, at what cost. Who needed to talk to me, but I ignored the phone call or text? Was there something meaningful and necessary that I missed out on teaching my child? Did I miss hearing God’s voice because I brushed it aside from my heart only to use my hand to check one more item off the list? What do I miss out on when I am overly driven to accomplish, achieve, succeed. However, maybe there is another way to look at the word driven. What if instead of overloading our schedules and to do lists, pushing the clock, pushing ourselves to the limits, letting tasks control our lives over relationships we became a different kind of driven? What if we surrender all of it, and let God climb in he driver’s seat? What if instead of filling up a piece of paper of all the things we are going to accomplish in a day, we sat down and prayed? What if we began each day putting God in charge? What if we paused long enough to hear God’s voice and direction? We may find that there is more for us to do than the type of items we can cross off a list.
With God in the driver’s seat, we may find that what we put on our list to accomplish on any given day does not even need to be a priority for that day at all. What if we were driven, but by God? Now that is the kind of driven personality, I can be proud of!
“And when you turn to the right, or when you turn to the left, your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” (Isaiah 30:21).