If we were asked that question, we might come up with a myriad of answers – children, spouse, faith, sports, leisure, work, etc. Our answer to the question might be our opinion, but the reality of our lives could possibly prove our answers wrong. Bob Dylan stated it best some years back – You’ve gotta serve somebody. I would just modify that a little – you have to serve somebody or something. A song from the movie Bruce Almighty states “We have a God shaped hole in all of us.” Regardless of your theology or agreement with the song, humans have a need to fill their lives with things. We all have needs for fulfillment, love, belonging, etc. that we fill with many items. Millions of addicted people are living proof that we all search for something with which to fill ourselves. Aside from the answering of the question, how can we truly tell where our true devotions lie? I would venture to say that three places we can see where our devotions lie are by looking at our checkbooks, by where/how we spend our time and by how we spend our thoughts and energies.
Where do you spend the majority of your money? Food, entertainment, charity, kids, clothing, stuff - all take money to support and enjoy. Take a 90 day look at your checkbook or credit card statements and see where the majority of your money goes. There you will find the object of your devotion. Don’t take me the wrong way, I am not saying that the answer is right or wrong – only you can answer that for yourself. We spend an enormous amount of time and thought energy at work to earn our money and this effort, in my opinion, should support something worthy of this time and thought. Think to yourself, am I spending this hard earned money in beneficial ways, or in fleeting, temporary objects?
Where do you spend the majority of your time? Work will be the answer for most of us. After the time spent at work, where do we put our time? Do we spend our days running back and forth carrying children everywhere? Do we spend our evenings eating dinner and drinking a cocktail or cold one in front of the TV? Do we take time to truly enjoy our family or community activities that help others? Keep a diary for a couple of weeks of what you are doing with your time away from work and see where your efforts lie. It might surprise you as to how much time is available or how much time you possibly are wasting. Also, if possible, keep up with where you spend your time at work. See which activities take the most of your work time and realize that you need to be at a job where you enjoy the things that take up most of your time.
Where is your mind most of the time? Are we spending time in yesterdays, wishing we could do things over, re-do mistakes or are we kicking ourselves for past failures? Or are we spending time thinking of what can be, what we can accomplish once we don’t have kids at home, etc. and missing today dreaming about tomorrow? Spend your thoughts taking care of today. Don’t fail to plan or learn from your past, but put your thought energies into the moment and the enjoyment of just where you are. Invest the thought energy into worthwhile activities that are worth your devotion.
We are all devoted to many things. Money, time and thoughts are relatively finite commodities. Do your best to make sure that these things are expended upon worthwhile endeavors.