NASHVILLE, TN – Do you know where you will be when you get where you’re going? Well, someone does!
You are headed somewhere whether you like it or not. The journey will come to an end at some appointed time. If that is not good news to your ears, then check this out. Right now, it can be the beginning of a new journey, a better road, and maybe even the best days of your life!
Here are some faith steps you can take to maximize your most excellent life. One of the smartest guys who ever lived once said, “Life is like riding a bicycle. If you want to keep your balance, you must keep moving.” Einstein was correct. Step 1 is to never completely stop. God gives you only so many days; use each with purpose.
John D. Rockefeller noted, “If you want to succeed, you must strike out on new paths rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success.” So don’t let the fear of the unknown or something new and different hinder you from taking necessary leaps of faith. Your new journey is never supposed to be all spelled out from beginning to end.
Proverbs says, “The path of the righteous is like the morning sun, shining ever brighter till the full light of day.” In other words, it shines more and more as you go ...as you do... as you live by faith!
By the way, any other new adventure (not by faith) is not worth the effort. So, Step 2 is to go boldly, fearlessly, and consistently where none have traveled before—as God leads.
Steps 3 and 4 have some similarities: “To reach a port, we MUST SAIL. SAIL, not tie an anchor. SAIL, not drift.” (Franklin D Roosevelt) On all human levels—there is a natural tendency to hit the pause button and just DRIFT! And to fulfill God’s pilgrimage here—we must keep sailing! Avoid the drift that will ultimately cause you to throw down the anchor!!
“You can’t change the wind. But you can adjust your sails to reach your destination.” (Paulo Coelho) Yes, brothers and sisters, we all are afraid of change, and we don’t like it. Well get over it dearly beloved. There will be many times in your future that an attitude adjustment is just what the great physician ordered.
So, to reiterate—steps 3 and 4 are to avoid drifting (sail intentionally), never put down permanent anchors—and always let God adjust your thinking.
So maybe at this point you are saying to yourself, “Self, you don’t even have a mission statement “let me help you. The mission statement of Chik-Fil-A is (wait for it…) “To Glorify God”. It doesn’t get much simpler than that.
Maybe your excuse is that you can’t do a lot. Can you sit? In 1986, nurse Sandra Clarke could not stay with a patient who asked her to stay and when she returned, the patient had died alone. It took 15 years, but in 2001 she was key in starting No One Dies Alone – a program where volunteers sit with terminally ill patients who have no one else! Today it is worldwide!
So please don’t say there is nothing for me to do. I love what my favorite inventor said, “To invent, all you need is good imagination and a pile of junk.” (T. Edison). Never, ever, ever, stop dreaming!!!
If you are simply stuck in a rut; get out!! A rut is just a GRAVE with both ends knocked out!
Peyton Manning said, “It’s not wanting to win that makes you a winner, it’s refusing to FAIL.”
Adrian Rogers taught, “Sin can’t win, and faith can’t fail.”
And John wrote, “this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith.“
Lastly, it’s my prayer that these thoughts may serve as your personal challenge to go for it this year. Hold nothing back. Sail like there is no tomorrow.
As some unknown person quipped, “He who has a WHY to live can bear almost any HOW”!! Go get your WHY back!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr. David L. Thompson holds an undergraduate degree from Belmont University in Psychology and Religion, a graduate degree from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Education, and a doctorate in Counseling and Pastoral Psychology. He has served as a chairman of the Church Planting Group and Executive Committee Chair at the North American Mission Board for 10 years. He has been a Police Chaplain since 1991 and served as a Corporate Chaplain to the Coca Cola Bottling Company in Nashville, Tennessee where he resides with his wife. He has six children and five grandsons.