NOTE: This weekly post—the second of ten—is adapted from my book The Christian Man. It also syncs to the currently available episode of “The Christian Man” Online Bible Study series being taught at The Man in the Mirror Men’s Bible Study here in Orlando. Join us online for an inspirational journey to help you become, or affirm you as, the man God created you to be.

Managing the Pressures That Will Otherwise Manage You

The big idea for leading a balanced life is that you have all the time to do everything God wants you to do. Figuring that out is a challenge, but it’s also exciting to discover what God has in store for you.

Nothing will help you lead a balanced life more than deciding in advance what you want your priorities to be. A priority is anything to which you assign a high degree of urgency or importance. As such, setting priorities should precede goal setting and decision making. Priorities help us manage the pressures that will otherwise manage us.

For our purposes, we’re focused on the long-term priorities that will keep us balanced, such as loving God, staying married, being a good dad, doing work that matters, and maintaining financial security.

The key is to decide our priorities in advance. Priorities are like downloading a planned hike into your GPS app so you’ll always be able to tell if you’re where you wanted to be. Once you lock down your priorities, for all intents and purposes you’re literally writing future history.

What Are the Priorities of the Christian Man?

There’s no cookie-cutter description of “the Christian man.” And priorities are not “one size fits all.” A follower of Jesus in Pakistan will have a vastly different mental picture of a “win” than a middle-class American. That said, we all share approximately the same priorities.

While there’s no universal map that will get you to your destination, the following five biblical priorities will help you manage those pressures that will otherwise manage you.

Reflect on how each of the following aligns with where you are today and where you would like to be in ten years. As you read each priority below, answer the question: what level of “faithful” best describes where you have been recently for each?

Loving God
very faithful | mostly faithful | somewhat faithful | not faithful

Loving People: Wife, Children, Friends
very faithful | mostly faithful | somewhat faithful | not faithful

Vocation: Work, Rest, Recreation, Health
very faithful | mostly faithful | somewhat faithful | not faithful

Money
very faithful | mostly faithful | somewhat faithful | not faithful

Ministry
very faithful | mostly faithful | somewhat faithful | not faithful

How did you do? Did you see something that surprised you? That would be normal; we can all lose focus and fail to reflect on how we are doing in one of these areas. But now you know—and can reset your priorities and plan accordingly.

For a more complete description of these five priorities and more help with life balance—and to dig deeper with another man—consider taking 12 weeks to go through The Christian Man Mentoring Experience.

Yours for changed lives,

Pat