By Rusty Stowe - Senior Adult Minister
There was a story about a young couple who lived in the city and wanted to get out of town for an afternoon drive in the country. It did not take long for them to discover they were lost. They came upon an old farmer plowing his field so the young city guy stopped his car and asked the famer, “Can you tell me where this road will take us?” Without a moment of hesitation the old farmer said, “Son, this road will take you anywhere you want to go, if you are headed in the right direction!” It seems that we have a lot of people today who do not know WHERE they are going.
Living life without some type of goal is like playing a football game with no goal line or out-of-bound lines. There is nothing to keep you “in bounds” or to keep you headed for the goal line. These people just keep running back and forth never accomplishing anything. It is time for us to “focus in” on some goals that we can reach in the year 2022. Most of the time it is easier to “reach” a goal that it is to “set” the goal.
Did you ever play with a magnifying glass when you were a kid? You could take the glass out into the sunshine and focus it in on a piece of paper or a small pile of leaves and before long you could harness the power of the sun and create a small fire. But if you kept moving the glass around, never focusing in on one particular thing, nothing ever happened. We have been challenged by our pastor and leadership teams to focus in on some new and maybe different goals for this year. Are we headed in the same direction as last year? Is this the year we see God do a mighty work in our church?
God wants the very best of who we are. He wants us to be the tops in every aspect of our lives. He wants us to excel in our individual lives and as a church family. For years a lady by the name of Ethel Waters was the soloist for the Billy Graham Crusades. After a service held in London, England someone expressed amazement at the tremendous response Dr. Graham was getting from the people in London. Ethel just smiled and said “Honey, just remember, God don’t sponsor no flops!”
In his letter to the Philippians, the Apostle Paul wrote, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. One thing I do: Forget what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 3:12-14)
Have a great and glorious week in serving our Lord.
Rusty