First Things

I heard this story a few years ago, and I was reminded of it a few hours ago as I sat in a chapel attending the funeral of a dear friend.

Here's the story:

A professor went into a 2nd-year medical school classroom and placed a large empty glass container on his desk, in full view of the students.  "Is this container full?" he asked them.

Confused, they answered no, it was not full.  Then he took some large stones from under the desk and placed them inside the container, right up to the top.  "Is it full now?"  he asked.  

About half of them said yes; half said no.  Then he took another container of pebbles and poured them into the container, shaking the container to make the pebbles filter downward. They filled up the spaces between the stones.  "Is it full now?"

More people caught on. About 3/4 of them said it wasn't full.  He then got a container of sand and poured that into the container with the stones and pebbles. "What about now?" he said.  Most of them said no, it wasn't full yet.

Finally he took a large container of water and poured until everything was wet right up to the top of the container.  "Is it full now?"

Everyone agreed it was.

Then he said, "So what has this object lesson taught us?"

A young woman raised her hand.  "As doctors we are going to be very busy," she said, "but as busy as we are, there will always be room to cram one more thing into our schedules."


"No," said the professor.  "The point is that if you don't put the big rocks in FIRST, they won't fit."

That story comes to my rescue sometimes. 

Much of what goes on in our lives is geared toward making the sand fit first (making money, doing more things, even good things) ...which doesn't leave room for the important things.


Things "fit" so much better when the important things like kindness, mercy, and love are our primary foundation, our first focus.  Then we find that the other things can be added ... and in the right proportions.

Life's way too short to major on minors or to try to shove the big things into our lives after the petty little things have already taken up squatter's rights in our thinking process.


How many times have I missed opportunities to do the right thing while trying to do the most pressing thing?  Behaved out of a knee-jerk reaction rather than thoughtful, prayerful response?  Expected the worst instead of listened to the reasons why someone did or said something? I've lost count.

Today was a reminder to make the best things foundational - and allow the rest of the things to settle into their proper place.