Today I want to give you two simple things that you can do that will help you to discover what your internal idea of 'there" or success looks like.
1. UNCOVER YOUR VALUES. What are your values? Well what do you love deeply? Family, friends, money, technology, traveling, cars? What do you deeply love? Your answer could be a core value that you have for your life. But also think about what makes you righteously angry? For it might be when you see a poor person being abused. For others it may be when you realize someone has cheated to get to the top.
This is not about just being angry but being angry because a standard of God has been broken or overlooked or missed. So I ask again, what makes you righteously angry? For me, when I see preachers who stretch the meaning of a scripture just to make it fit their slanted view or to manipulate something from someone. It just makes me mad.
(2 Corinthians 13:8 NLT) "Our responsibility is never to oppose the truth, but to stand for the truth at all times."
This scripture is why I get so upset at preachers sometimes. Because I have a VALUE for ministering the truth.
What do you value? Take some time and write out 4 to 6 key values that you have. Prayerfully ask the Holy Spirit to guide your thoughts as you do.
Of course "claimed values" and "practiced values" are not the same. We have a lot of Christians that claim certain values that they never practice. Likewise, we have a culture that claims to believe in God but they practice their lives as if he doesn't exist.
(Ezekiel 33:31) "My people...listen to your words, but they do not put them into practice."
The difference between the truth you claim and the truth you live equals the pain of your experience.
I know several people in my life who all say they need to get in shape, lose some weight, etc. But if they never get on a program and go through the pain of the workouts or the shifting of their eating habits, they will never experience the the value that they claim.
What in your life do you claim as a value but you never really practice that value? Family? Dates with you wife or husband?
2. DISCOVER YOUR MISSION. The bible is full of great people with great accomplishments. But it's easy to forget that these people were driven by a deep personal mission. Do you have one?
In Genesis, there is a story of a man who was sent on an important mission - to find a wife for his master's son. Upon arriving at the home of Laban, he would not celebrate or rest because he was on a mission.
(Genesis 24:33 NLT) "But Abraham's servant said, 'I don't want to eat until I have told you why I have come.' 'All right,' Laban said, 'tell us your mission.'"
What would cause someone to be that focused? Mission. What gives someone the ability to cut through the clutter and stay on task? Mission. What do you need if you are going to not only discover what "there" is but also get "there"? Mission. Do you have one?
Paul did. He was a Jew of Jew and at one time or another in his life he had been both rich and poor. But his economic situation was not the mission of his life. Something else was.
(Acts 20:24) I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may...complete the task...of testifying to the gospel of God's grace."
Paul's mission...drove him to cross oceans, face opposition, serve jail time and eventually give his life. What would you give your life for? What ever that might be is part of your mission.
Even Jesus the Son of God was driven by mission.
(Luke 19:10) "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost."
What drives you? You can determine it.
Take a moment and write a one sentence mission statement. You would never invest in a company without knowing it's vision and mission. But we live our lives without them? I encourage you to work on a one sentence mission statement. Clarity is what it all about.
Finally, I want to leave you with a prayer by Francis Drake from 1577. It is a prayer that we should all pray. I encourage you to print it out. Stick it somewhere in your office or home and pray it daily. May you find the strength and ability to get from here to there.
"Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves.
When our dreams have come true because we have dreamed too little.
When we arrived safely because we sailed too close to the shore.