One time in Japan I ran a discipleship weekend through the American mission organisation Cadence at their US Navy outreach in Yokosuka called “The Lighthouse”.

Everyone was split up into teams of 4-5 people. And I sent them off on an adventure day.

Starts were staggered to keep them out of each other’s way a bit during the day, and after their start time was recorded they headed off only knowing stage 1. They could only find out the next stage after they finish this one.

Along the way they had to prove they had been there by photographing themselves doing something while holding their mascot, (a different cute glove puppet for each team).
At each checkpoint someone was there to meet them, to record their time of arrival, and to give them an activity to do before moving on to the next stage.

When they got back to the lighthouse they all assumed it was a race, and that the team who did it the quickest was the winner.
It wasn’t. There was no winner.
They were shocked. The guys who came home the fastest weren’t so happy.
But one team was incredibly happy - because one of their members had injured their foot and had slowed the whole team down all day. But they had refused to abandon him, even though they knew it meant they would lose the race.

The actual aim of the whole day was to teach them to work together as a team, and that each member of the team was important. The Great Commission is a Team Command.
That team was so glad they hadn’t taken their injured team member’s suggestion and left him behind.

They were also exposed to some interesting Japanese cultural things along the way. Also to highlight that different cultures value different things. In Japan that includes nature, food, walking, calisthenics, … And that each culture’s valued things are not right or wrong, but just different.

In the end there was one thing they all agreed - they all worked well as teams, and had a fun adventure together.
And I think each team took home a lesson of something they had learned.

One of the lessons from that day. Was that our assumptions aren’t always right.

You probably know the Bible story of two kings, Saul and David. (Read about it in 1 Samuel if you don’t).
The Jews finally found themselves in the land Yahweh had promised to them.
They looked at the nations around them and saw that they all had kings. So they picked one like theirs - strong, impressive looking Saul.
It didn’t work out so well. Saul wasn’t a great king.

Then David, a shepherd boy, was chosen by Yahweh himself to be the king.
God’s prophet Samuel was sent to anoint him, (1 Samuel 16), and as part of that event, he rejected all David’s strong, impressive looking older brothers.
That’s our assumption about kings isn’t it. But God wants a king who has a heart after his own. David was that man. And God knew it even when he was just a boy.
And David became an outstanding king and led his nation well.
The whole nation had assumed that the priority for a king was power.
They were all wrong.

And the story of Maria (Mary) and Martha in Luke 10.
Yeshua had come to visit. Martha was running around making sure there was food and drinks. Making sure everyone was comfortable, being a really wonderful hostess. Her sister Maria was just so engrossed that she just sat down at Yeshua’s feet and listened to everything he said.
Of course, just as you and I probably would, Martha complained. Not to Maria but to Yeshua, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me alone to do all the serving? Then tell her that she should help me.”!!
But his answer made it clear that her assumptions about what was important were wrong.
Yeshua said to her, “Martha. Martha. You’re anxious and getting worked up about many things. But only one thing is needed. And Maria has chosen the better part, which won’t be taken away from her.”
It’s so easy isn’t it, to live based on assumptions about priorities, but to not actually spend time thinking about whether they actually are best, or even if they’re correct.

How about you, and your assumptions?
Take some time and write down what you think what your list of life priorities is. Maybe choose 3 or 4 which you think are behind the way you live your life. Maybe ones you would like to be remembered for at your funeral.

Go on! Do it.

At least stop for a second and think about it.

Now, write down think for a moment what you think God’s priorities are for your life.

Are the two lists the same? Your priorities and God’s priorities for you? (Unlikely, for any of us).
So is there something on your list which shouldn’t be there? Something you were living as a priority, but now you see that it’s not God’s priority. So it should go?

How different would your life have to be if you drop that one?
Are you willing to do that?

On our adventure day, once the teams realised that there was no winner based on time, most of them were saying things like, “Oh I wish we’d spent more time at blah”… or “I wish we’d taken the longer way to Tenen so we could have seen Mt Fuji.
(They’re right, they should have).




When we realise that we have priorities or goals which don’t line up with what God wants for us…
We need to change.
We can’t change the past. But we can live differently for the future.

That’s not easy. But ask God to help you realign with his priorities. Be willing to live a different life starting now.