Daily Dose 38: Cannon Balls and Sand

How about another personal favorite Picture for My Mind?

C. H. Spurgeon wrote in his Sword and Trowel of a man filling a large box with cannon balls. Needless to say, it did not take too many balls before the box was full. Not so, says Spurgeon. The box would only be full of cannon balls, but it was not truly full. The space around the cannon balls could be filled with shot (think BBs, modern America), and when no more shot would fit, then a quantity of sand could still be poured into the nooks and crannies. There is an infinite point-number line-math lesson in there somewhere! 

Cannon Ball Hours

Seriously, what a spectacular way to think of priorities and responsibilities in life! Big responsibilities, big appointments, big time commitments “fill” our time—think of the 40-60-75 hour a week job-for-pay to work at a career, or the 120 hour a week job-for-love to care for a new baby.

Shot Minutes and Sand Seconds

If we are wise, minute-sized shot can be poured in around the cannon ball hours, and eventually sand-seconds into the flashes between minutes. Life is never truly “full” when only the big balls are in place, far from it.

Most of life’s cannon balls are handed to you and you are told to put them into your box. The boss tells you when to come to work, and when you can leave. The school says when to be in your seat, and when to get on the bus for home. The store, the doctor, the post office, and the library all tell you when you can come to them.

I like to think the Lord has asked for one cannon ball—His day, to be thoughtfully placed in the box before any of the other cannon balls are put into place. In reality, every other cannon ball, and all the shot or sand we pile into the box is His as well. In this way, if we permit, He can permeate every hefty ball AND every nook and cranny of life with Himself and His way to do things. Or He can be relegated to a handful of sand tossed into the box as a final afterthought.

Executive Oversight (EO) is all about cannonballs and sand. Taking time to examine each cannon ball to see if it really belongs in MY box. . . perhaps exchanging a cannon ball or two for another. . . or pulverizing a cannon ball into shot-sized or even sand-sized pieces. . . shaking the box to see if extra shot or sand can be poured around the cannonballs to make the full box even fuller.

When you look at your priority list, how many are directly tied to your cannon ball activities? How many have been dumped into your box? How many have you added yourself? Which can be broken down? Taken out? Is a priority getting a cannon ball’s worth of time when it should only get some sand seconds? Or are there priorities getting sand seconds that need cannon ball time? Does the box need shaken? Does it need emptied and refilled? (picture that mess!)?

Cannon balls and sand was one of those elegant solutions for me. A clarifying, focusing way to come to my priorities and my time usage as the objective, executive overseer, rather than the one being crushed by the pressures. Somehow the executive overseer me sees what is out of balance more clearly than the pressurized me, so, of course, I hope cannon balls and sand give you that same objective clarity when you look at your box.