So, when’s the last time you encountered this sign?  Perhaps it was at your favorite vending machine when you’ve shown up with money in hand eager and desperately needing to buy a soft drink to satisfy your thirst.  Better, or really worse yet, this sign has been what’s greeted you when you needed to “take care of business” (no less eagerly or maybe even desperately) at the public washroom.  In either event, this is one sign that you rarely welcome seeing in your life.  In fact, when it is encountered we tend to move frantically about pacing until the relief we’re longing for is found.  Isn’t it much the same way with life from time to time?  Don’t we so often find ourselves frantically pacing about in search of that one thing that will bring about that quenching relief?  Doesn’t it seem we’re all at various times in our life on an insatiable quest to medicate the pain that can so often consume our life when the longings of our heart are left unmet?  I’m wondering if part of the answer for us can be found in the sign itself.  In fact, could it that for many of us this is the sign of our life?  For those of us who relate to this maybe the underlying problem is the priorities of our life are simply out of order.  I mean just think about the cumulative, negative effect of putting work over family for years on end or even something as less obvious but equally as degenerative as choosing isolation over community. 

I’ve often thought the priorities of life represent one of the best templates for gaining or maintaining the appropriate perspectives on life.  The question then becomes one of how we best determine the right order of our priorities.  Certainly there is a part that logic plays in helping us discern this answer but it seems we’re better served to look at this in light of what things, which things bring that quenching satisfaction to our souls.  For example, which one of life’s priorities bring healing to the pain rather than just providing momentary numbness.  Maybe the real question we need to consider is who should come first in our life?  After all, isn’t this the place that should be reserved for our highest “priority”?  Peace.