Majoring on Minors

Can you imagine what it would be like for a young person to go to college and focus all or most of their attention, time, resources, and energy on minor subjects instead of the majors? In another parlance, it’s like taking your elective courses a lot more seriously than the core courses. That would be a disaster, wouldn’t it? Well, that kind of students would never graduate, would they?

A lot of Christians have become somewhat like this kind of student, focusing on the minors while ignoring or trivializing the majors. Many Christians go through life with a disproportionate focus on the things that ultimately matter less or do not matter at all in life’s grand scheme of things. Because life comes from God, what is important and matters or doesn’t is completely in His prerogative. He determines, or has already determined what is ‘major’ or ‘minor’ in all of life.

Matthew 6:25-34 quite clearly highlights the major-minor spectrum with avid picturesqueness.

“Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?…Therefore take no thought, saying, what shall we eat? Or, what shall we drink? Or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” 

Here, Jesus delineates and distinguishes two different ways to live, or if you like two kinds of agenda to live for; one way to live, or one agenda to live for is the self-centered pursuit of “what to eat, drink, wear”, while the other is the pursuit of the Kingdom. So, there’s the ‘self-care’ and the ‘kingdom-care’ approaches to life.

Jesus does not mince words here. He makes it clear that the craze and chase after self-serving ideals that are so popular in the world, even in the church, are really the minors of life. Let’s be honest, people are born and raised and conditioned to seek for the best for themselves. We are taught to do well in school, go for a high-paying professional career, go to a prestigious school, and seek to climb to the very top of the career ladder, to earn six-figure salaries, marry a beautiful and successful person, own a posh car and live a sub-urban dream life…all for what?

The end is often always woven around the ‘what-to-eat-drink-wear’ and very intense self-aggrandizement mentality. We have all these dreams and expectations about life and we spend all our time and resources chasing them. And we see Jesus here very clearly dismiss this kind of way of living. He says “take no thought” for it, and calls it the ‘Gentile’ way of life, not the way a child of God should live.

So, how did He want us as His children to live? To be focused on the majors! That major, is the pursuit of the Kingdom; the kingdom-seeking lifestyle. It de-emphasizes self, myself, me and mine, and put a premium on Christ, God and His Kingdom. This way of living, according to Him, doesn’t say what to eat-drink-wear is completely irrelevant, but that it is not as relevant as God’s kingdom agenda and purpose. It is a matter of having it in the right order. “seek first the kingdom”, he says, not “seek only” the kingdom. He promises that if we live with a focus and priority on this major and more important purpose-agenda, He will bring to us the other things too.

Imagine what it would look like if you were living your life primarily based on what would most benefit and further God’s kingdom on earth, rather than what would make me the most money or make me the most happy and successful? That’s what this is about! When you live focused on the major, you don’t ask “who should I marry to be successful” but “who should I marry to best position me to add value to the kingdom”. You’ll find yourself asking “which career/profession should I chose to help me further the kingdom interests of God better” rather than “which career/profession should I chose to make the most money” and so on.

How do you know what you are majoring or focusing on in your life? By the motives or motivations and underlying reasonings behind the things you are doing with your life, time, money and resources. Why did you chose to study medicine? Why did you chose a career in politics? Why are you falling in love with that guy or lady? Why do you want to move overseas and work? These kings of questions, when asked honestly can unearth the complicated mindsets that tell us if or whether we are living for the kingdom or for self and the what-to-eat-drink-wear agenda.

God has only one agenda in the world today, that is, to redeem for Himself a people from every nation on earth (Rev 7:9), to seek and to save the lost sheep that are outside the fold. The purpose of God in the world is a redemptive and reconciliatory one. This is what ought to be the “priority one” or top agenda of the believer; this is our major – the global redemptive purpose of God.

Christians have become victims of the carefully orchestrated world system, a world that places emphasis on stuff like money, prestige and status. Materialism has crept its way into our midst. We have gone from being ‘soul winners’ to the proverbial ‘bread winner’ as many people in the church have yielded to the worldly pressure around them and have lost the vision of what God wants to do and is already doing in the world today. Instead of focusing on the Major, on God’s mission in the world, we are pursuing the minors. We are now majoring on the minors. This affects everything we do and how we do it

I want to challenge you to re-assess your life’s priorities, goals and values and re-align them with the global redemptive purpose of our God. The word of God says “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you”. In this scripture, God has explicitly defined what the Core-Major is – The Kingdom, that is, the rule of God among all peoples. That the kingdom of God should come among men is the major agenda of God. Make it your major, your priority and your driving force in whatever you do, whether in business, in the academics, or in your professional career; whether it is your full-time job or not. Major on the major!

Here’s the big question: “What is the point behind the labors of my life?” Is it for ‘meat’, which is a perishable minor in God’s eyes, or for something more enduring, and which has relevance in eternity? If the point of your education, career, marriage, savings, investments, and ambitions cannot be linked to something more tangible and enduring than just mundane ‘meat’ then we are majoring on the minors and our pursuits are grossly out of sync with the master’s.  ‘Meat’ may be sweet, pleasurable and satisfying, but it will never give us relevance and a good reckoning with God. Obtain a vision that is bigger than just what you can achieve for yourself and do for your family.

Live radically for the global redemptive purpose of God, that’s the only way your life will never be wasted.