Christian Perspective: never settle for less than your best

July 4, 2013 · 0 Comments

How do you feel when you have put forth time and effort towards the completion of a specific task or goal? This week I received an email which caused me to jump up and down and shout with excitement. After putting in many hours of preparation I received word I was recognized as a sanctioned speaker with an organization in which I hold membership. While this will provide new opportunities to speak, it does not mean the end of the training journey.

Having gone as far as I could see, when I got there I was able to see further, which in this case, means a whole new level of training assignments. While graduation at any level is a worthwhile achievement, it is not a final destination. When you come to the realization that life is really a journey and not about the arrival, you open yourself up to the continuing discovery of new and exciting potential possibilities. Jesus said in John 10:10, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (NIV).

I was challenged a few months ago by a mentor, Kathy Eppley, who asked me the question, “What do you want? What do you really want for your life?” The bottom line for every person is to discover what they are really passionate about and make the decision to go for it. Napoleon Hill wrote many years ago, “Whatever the mind of man can conceive and bring itself to believe, it can achieve.” He also wrote about the need to, “Define your dream and get a burning desire for its achievement.” When Jesus was twelve years of age he understood what he was about. He declared to Mary and Joseph, “How is it that you had to look for Me? Did you not see and know that it is necessary [as a duty] for Me to be in My Father´s house and [occupied] about My Father´s business?” (Luke 2:49 AMP)

Jesus understood very early in his life the importance of not only knowing, but passionately following what he was destined to do. What about you? Are you drifting through life in a pattern or routine that is counting the minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years with no real connection to what brings joy, purpose and satisfaction to all you think and do?

Remember, dead, lifeless fish can drift with the tide or the flow of a river or stream, but it takes life to carve out a path beyond a drift.

I love the story told by Ed Foreman, the only person to be elected to the U.S. congress from two different states in the last 100 years. In this story he talks about a little boy and little girl who can´t wait to become a big boy and big girl so they can begin to enjoy life.

When they become a big boy and big girl, they can´t wait unit they are old enough to get married and have a family and then they will begin to enjoy life. When that happens, they can´t wait until their children get older and they get financially settled and then they will enjoy life. Then, when the children have graduated and are out on their own, they will retire and head out in a motor home and enjoy life. AND, before you know it, they are on their way to the grave, never having understood or experienced life to the full, because they did not recognize the only time this is possible is in the now moment.

It takes a deliberate decision to define your dream and it involves specific attitudes and actions to follow through to passionately motivate you to achieve your dreams and goals, whatever they might be. Kevin Trudeau has declared, “You must do the right things long enough, consistently, if you want to be successful, if you want to reach your dreams and goals.” Beyond, your willingness to begin, what level of commitment do you have to diligently follow through to live life to the full? The Apostle Paul in Philippians 3:14 wrote, “I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (NIV). Are you living life to the full, or are you settling for less than your best?

Grace Church

of the Nazarene

JOY Center of Learning

Resources for Building Lives

www.JOYCenter.on.ca

By Rev. Bob McLelLan