85 Sermon Illustrations on Goals

Soon after the completion of Disney World, someone said, "Isn't it too bad the Walt Disney didn't live to see this?"

Mike Vance, creative director of Disney Studios, replied, "He did see it -- that's why it's here."

Maria Shriver's mom is Eunice (Kennedy) Shriver, and her dad is Sargent Shriver, who ran for vice president. She is the niece of Robert and Ted Kennedy and is married to Arnold Schwarzenegger. She works at NBC-TV as a journalist. She flies around world and is very driven and successful. Susan Price writes:

Remarking that she's "the happiest I've ever been" professionally, Maria adds that she's taking time to examine the quality of her inner life. "My single long-term goal, if I have one, is to find some inner peace," she says levelly. "You look at people who have great faith in God, like my grandmother, and they have that - inner peace. They know they haven't hurt anyone on the way up, they haven't lied or done anything that they felt horrid about. So no matter what, they're very centered people."

Contrast of different approaches to ambition. Illustrations from Carnegie, Trotman, Colson.

(1) Ambition versus laziness.

(2) The dark side of ambition.

(3) Walking the tightrope.

(4) Taming the beast for service.

(5) Tying ambition to submission.

Series in Minor Prophets. Haggai and Spiritual Priorities.

1. Background of Haggai.

a. Jews morally clean.

b. Jews spiritually worn out.

2. Spiritual priorities.

a. Wrong priorities worse than sin.

b. Wrong priorities reason for lack of prosperity.

3. God's commands for priorities.

a. Put God's work first. "Build the house."

b. Believe that God's work is greater.

c. Don't expect easy, immediate results.

c. The most important priority is to belong to God.

4. Application to Ledgewood Baptist.

a. Basically decent people.

b. Complacency leads to poor finances.

c. Ho-hum attitude toward salvation.

5. What are you doing for God's work?

The philosopher Pascal said:

“The present is never our end. The past and the present are our means - the future alone is our end. So we never live, but we hope to live - and as we are always preparing to be happy, it is inevitable we should never be so.”

For every hurdle we want to overcome, we need willpower. Willpower is a skill that can be developed, strengthened and targeted to help us achieve our goals. “Fundamental among man’s inner powers is the tremendous unrealized potency of man’s own will,” wrote Italian psychologist Roberto Assagioli 25 years ago. “The trained will is a masterful weapon. … The key words are power and control. The power is there, but you have to control it,” says Alan Marlatt of the University of Washington.

1. Be positive.

2. Make up your mind. — Four stages in making a change:

a. Precontemplation (resisting the change).

b. Contemplation (weighing the pros and cons of the change).

c. Action (exercising willpower to make the change).

d. Maintenance (using willpower to sustain the change).

3. Zero-in on your target. — The most successful at keeping New Years resolutions are those who make specific goals.

4. Believe in your cause.

5. Feed your ego.

6. Act as if… Acting as if you’re strong-willed can help you be strong-willed.

7. Sharpen your will. —

a. Make a list of Saturday-morning errands and don’t eat lunch until you have done them all. Schedule one evening a month for paying bills, and stick to that date.

b. New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley was a basketball star with the champion New York Knicks. On top of regular practice, he always went to the gym early and practiced foul shots alone. He was determined to be among the best from the foul line. True to his goal, he developed the highest percentage of successful free throws on his team.

8. Expect trouble.

9. Be realistic.

10. Be patient.

11. Keep it up.

First day in the sixth grade, I’ll never forget it,” recalls Jesse Jackson, who ran for president of the United States in 1988. “My teacher was Miz Shelton, and she began writing these long words on the blackboard we couldn’t understand, never even heard of before.

Somebody finally called out, “Uh, Miz Shelton? Those are eighth-grade words. We are only the sixth grade here.”

She turned around. “I know what grade you are. I work here. I know what grade I’m teaching. And you’ll learn every one of these words, and a lot more like them, before this year is over. I will not teach down to you. One of you little brats just might be mayor or governor, or even President, some day, and I’m gonna make sure you’ll be ready.”

And she turned back and went right on writing. At that time Jackson says, her proposition prompted no glow of possibility in him. “Aim to be governor? Even aim to be mayor, when in Greenville then there wasn’t a single African-American on the Board of Education, in the Police Department, the Fire Department? And aim to be President!?!”

Before any great accomplishment, someone must have a vision.

Meriwether Lewis stood at the Continental Divide of the Rocky Mountains, more than halfway on his epic quest across the North American continent. He concluded his August 18, 1805, journal entry with an oft-quoted passage of introspection and self-criticism.

"This day I completed my thirty-first year," he began. He figured he was halfway through his life's journey. "I reflected that I had as yet done but little, very little indeed, to further the happiness of the human race, or to advance the information of the succeeding generation. I viewed with regret the many hours I have spent in indolence, and now soarly feel the want of that information which those hours would have given me had they been judiciously expended."

He shook the mood, writing that, since the past could not be recalled, "I dash from me the gloomy thought and resolved in future, to redouble my exertions and at least indeavour to promote those two primary objects of human existence, by giving them the aid of that portion of talents which nature and fortune have bestoed on me..." and here he seems to have lost his train of thought. Whatever the cause, he forgot to name those "two primary objects of human existence," and instead ended, "in future, to live for MANKIND, as I have heretofore lived FOR MYSELF."

An interview with Miriam Armerding, the wife of a long-time Wheaton College

president, on what she has gained and lost with advancing years.

I. Are you really committed to the Lord?

A. Fear of debilitating illness.

1) Dealing with the fear.

B. Physical limitations.

1) Failing eyes. Everything you read becomes precious.

2) Arthritis.

II. Important values.

A. Integrity.

B. Honorableness of work.

C. Compassion.

III. Confirmation that God's promises are true.

#3786

*

The morning of May 20, 2000, dawned damp and grey over a grassy field in Memphis, where a portable city had sprung up overnight. Thousands of muted tents stood in wet rows; fog made everything hazy. About 40,000 college students had arrived for the fourth Passion Conference, “One Day 2000,” its first outdoors. It was a day they wouldn’t forget, one they describe with words like “special” and “holy” and “weight of glory.”

Even people who weren’t there remember it, because that day author and pastor John Piper gave his famous “seashells” message.

Before he spoke, Piper asked God for “a prophetic word that would have a ripple effect to the ends of the earth and to eternity.” And then he began his message…

“You don’t have to know a lot of things for your life to make a lasting difference in the world. You don’t have to be smart, or good-looking, or from a good family,” he told them. “You just have to know a few, basic, glorious, majestic, obvious, unchanging, eternal things, and be gripped by them, and be willing to lay down your life for them.”

Five minutes in, he laid out the comparison nobody forgot:

Three weeks ago, we got news at our church that Ruby Eliason and Laura Edwards were killed in Cameroon. Ruby Eliason — over 80, single all her life, a nurse. Poured her life out for one thing: to make Jesus Christ known among the sick and the poor in the hardest and most unreached places.

Laura Edwards, a medical doctor in the Twin Cities, and in her retirement, partnering up with Ruby. [She was] also pushing 80, and going from village to village in Cameroon. The brakes give way, over a cliff they go, and they’re dead instantly. And I asked my people, “Is this a tragedy?”

Two women, in their 80s almost, a whole life devoted to one idea — Jesus Christ magnified among the poor and the sick in the hardest places. And 20 years after most of their American counterparts had begun to throw their lives away on trivialities in Florida and New Mexico, [they] fly into eternity with a death in moment. “Is this a tragedy?” I asked.

The crowd knew the answer, calling out, “No!”

“It is not a tragedy,” Piper affirmed. “I’ll read you what a tragedy is.”

He pulled out a page from Reader’s Digest. He read it to them:

‘Bob and Penny ... took early retirement from their jobs in the Northeast five years ago when he was 59 and she was 51. Now they live in Punta Gorda, Florida, where they cruise on their 30-foot trawler, play softball, and collect shells.’

“That’s a tragedy,” he told the crowd.

And there are people in this country that are spending billions of dollars to get you to buy it. Don’t buy it. With all my heart I plead with you — don’t buy that dream.... As the last chapter before you stand before the Creator of the universe to give an account with what you did: “Here it is, Lord — my shell collection. And I’ve got a good swing. And look at my boat.”

“Don’t waste your life,” he said, the words quietly tucked in before he barreled into another memorable anecdote, this one about a plaque in his home featuring C. T. Studd’s poem, “Only one life, twill soon be past / Only what’s done for Christ will last.”

The way to not waste your life, Piper said, is to give God glory for every gift, because every one — from a new car to physical safety to your own next heartbeat — is grace bought and paid for through the cross.

________

Adapted from "How John Piper’s Seashells Swept Over a Generation," by Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra, March 20, 2017.

Quotes on Random Acts of Kindness

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"When I was quite small my immigrant Russian grandmother once told me that people in this country give from the wrong place. 'When you give from here,' she declared pointing to her solar plexus and calling some word that I could never pronounce, 'it's like keeping a ledger book. I give you three so you give me three. I sweep the floor so you carry the bundles.'

"She pulled the wisps of white hair out of her eyes with the back of her red hands, shaking her head back and forth, tssking her tongue against her teeth. 'That's not giving, that's trading. You give your soul away when you give like that. Giving is supposed to be from here,' she said, pointing to the center of her chest with a feathery finger. 'When you give from your heart it's not to get anything back. There is no owing or owed. You just give because you want to give. When you give like this, it fills you up. It can't empty you.'

"'Your heart can never run out. The more you give from there, the fuller it will be.' Then she wiped her hands on the yellow apron and pulled me to her. 'It's like giving a hug. You remember this, kitzaleh. Remember to give from your heart. Even to strangers. When you give like this, there are no strangers. And remember to notice when other people give to you like this and be sure to say thank you.'" -- Dawna Markova, Ph.D

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"Do every act of your life as if it were your last."

-- Marcus Aurelius

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"We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects."

-- Herman Melville

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"What you deny to others will be denied to you, for the plain reason that you are always legislating for yourself; all your words and actions define the world you want live in."

-- Thaddeus Golas

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"If someone comes to you asking for help, do not say in refusal, 'Trust in God, HE will help.' Rather act as if there were no God, and no one to help except you."

-- Zaddik

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"It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end."

-- Ursula K. LeGuin

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"It's fearful to know we're connected to everything in the universe, because then we're responsible."

-- Glenda Taylor

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"Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair but manifestations of strength and resolution."

-- Kahil Gibran

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"I believe that man will not merely endure; he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among the creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of kindness and compassion."

-- William Faulkner

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"I keep my ideals, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart."

-- Anne Frank

*

There are so many books and tapes on goal setting, I'm bored with them. Even many of the Christian ones have no scriptural basis.

But God has given us a wonderful, biblical model in Genesis 24, in which we can follow the steps to setting and reaching goals in the story of Eliezer, Abraham's servant, as he fulfilled his assigned project of finding Isaac a wife.

For years, I've used these 10 biblical steps in planning at Saddleback Valley Community Church:

1. DETERMINE YOUR POSITION

Ask yourself some questions. "Where am I now?" And, "What would I like to change?"

Take the time to evaluate your present situation. I do this about once a quarter. I ask these questions:

-- "Where am I headed?"

-- "Am I still headed in the right direction?"

If you were to call me from a phone booth and say, "I want to come over to your house. Give me directions," what would be the first thing I ask? "Where are you?" I've got to know where you are before I tell you how to get where you want to be.

That's true in any area of life. Before you can know where you want to go you've got to know where you are right now. Determine your position.

2. DEFINE YOUR PURPOSE

You need to clearly state your goal. I suggest getting a specific image in your mind so you know exactly what you want. First, you determine where you are and then you determine what you want.

Abraham said, "I want you to go to my country and to my own relatives and get a wife for my son Isaac." He knew exactly what he wanted. It was clearly defined. Later on, he gave other conditions: "I want a wife of the same nationality, from the same home town, same faith, someone who is beautiful, a virgin."

The point is -- you're never going to reach a vague goal. The more specific a goal is, the easier it is to reach. If you say, "God, bless my wife," how do you know when God's blessed your wife? Sometimes God blesses with a problem or a trial. Is that what you're praying for? You need to be specific. A vague goal has no drawing power. You need to know what you want.

Ask yourself three questions:

-- "What do I want to be?" (This is the most important -- What do I want to be in Christ's likeness?)

-- "What do I want to do?"

-- "What do I want to have?"

You say, "I want to travel." Great. Where? "I want to have income." Great. How much? "I want a career." Fantastic. What kind? "I want to witness?" To whom? Be specific. "I want to lose weight." How much? "I want to read the Bible." When do you want to read it?"

In 1960, JFK got up and said, "Within a decade we'll put a man on the moon." That was a decision. Did he try to figure out all the problems before he made the decision? No. He just set a goal. We're going to go there. Once the decision-making was out of the way, then the country moved into the problem solving. When he made the statement, it was physically and technologically impossible to do it. But he made the decision and later worried about the problems.

You need to be very, very specific. You determine your position, then you define your purpose.

3. DISCOVER A PROMISE

Find a promise you can claim from God's Word, and don't worry about the "how's" at this point.

When you're setting goals as a Christian, you don't look at your own resources, your own abilities. There are more than 7,000 promises in the Bible, just waiting to be claimed. They're like blank checks. Let the size of your God determine the size of your goal. We've set some big goals at Saddleback, and some people say, "Who do you think you are? Who do those people at Saddleback think they are?"

That's the wrong question. The issue is not who we think we are. The issue is who we think God is. How big is God?

Ask yourself:

-- "What promise can I claim?"

Keep looking in Scripture until you find a promise that's going to help you.

4. DESCRIBE THE PAYOFF

Every goal must have a payoff or reward. If there's no reward, then there's no motivation to fulfill it. You've got to settle the value of the goal in your mind.

Ask yourself three questions:

-- "What is the reward?"

-- "Why do I want it?"

-- "How will I feel when I get it?"

Why is it important to describe the profit up front?

Because when you settle the "Why?" God will show you the "How?"

When you know why you want to do what you want to do with your life, then you have a calling on your life, and God will show you the HOW.

If you delay in determining the payoff, then you'll give up when times get tough. You need to know the payoff to avoid discouragement.

5. DESIRE IN PRAYER

The Bible says in Mark 11:24, "Whatever you desire, pray and believe and you will have them." When you pray for your goals it does two things:

-- It reveals desire. Often God delays an answer to prayer or delays you attaining a goal you've been striving toward in order to see how badly you want it. He wants for you to distinguish whether this is a wish or a whim, or if this a deep desire in your heart.

2. It shows your dependence. Who are you really trusting in to see this goal accomplished? If I never pray about a goal, what is that saying? It's saying I don't think I need God's help. I can handle this on my own.

I continually ask myself: "Am I praying for my goals?"

Have I just set them, or am I really praying for them? Your goal sheet ought to be your prayer list.

They shouldn't be the only things on your prayer list, but they ought to be a part it: "Lord, these are the things I'm trying to accomplish with my life. I want my life to count. I want my life to be worthwhile. I want to make a difference. I want to be significant for your glory."

6. DIAGNOSE THE PROBLEMS

With this step, you identify the roadblocks and obstacles holding you back.

When assessing your goals, you want to ask yourself two questions:

-- "Why don't I have this already?"

-- "What are the barriers?"

The barriers will vary: they may be emotional, financial, intellectual or relational.

Take a look at Genesis 24 where Abraham sends his servant to find a wife for his son, Isaac. This is a great example of diagnosing the problem.

Eliezer, the servant of Abraham, is going to go to a foreign country. Can you imagine the number of serious problems he faced to reach the goal he'd been given? He needed to go to a country he'd never been to and find a lady he'd never met.

He needed to convince her to go with him and to marry a total stranger. Mission impossible? Would you do that? Do you think you'd be successful in that?

Believer has all kinds of problems to reach this goal:

-- In verse 21, he has the problem of finding the right girl.

-- In verse 49, he has the problem of getting the girl's parents' consent.

-- In verse 58, he had to get the girl's consent.

7. DESIGN A PLAN

Plan out a course of action to overcome the obstacles you've just identified. Write down some specific steps. Set a deadline, and schedule it.

As you design your plan, ask yourself these questions:

-- "How do I intend to get there?"

-- "How long will it take?"

As we look at Eliezer's story, we see that his plan is a masterpiece: He sets up a test. He'll take all his camels down to the water and have them kneel down. Then he'll ask a for a drink, and if the woman he asks says, "Let me water your camels, too," Eliezer will know he's found the right woman.

For one thing, this would have to be an unusual woman with a real heart for service. The average camel can drink up to 40 gallons of water! If you add up the camels, she's offering to hand-draw about 300 gallons of water.

Once this has occurred, Eliezer's plan is to then share his purpose. Only then will he reveal Abraham's wealth and try to get invited to her home, and only then will he pop the question. He has a strategic plan, and he follows it.

8. DISCIPLINE YOUR PERSONALITY

Nothing great is ever accomplished without discipline. The bottom line in your life is character. While you're working on your goals, God is working on you. God is much more interested in you than he is in your goals. During this planning and goal-setting process, God will work on you, making changes as you grow toward your goal.

I've said many times when I speak to pastors, "Growing churches require growing pastors." Likewise, growing businesses require growing businessmen. Growing marriages require growing husbands and wives. The moment you stop growing, you die.

You ought to ask yourself:

-- "Where do I need to change?" (God is more interested in your character than in the project)

-- "What kind of person do I need to become?"

When I first moved to the Saddleback Valley and set goals for Saddleback church, I was 26 years old. I thought, "There's no way I'm equipped to handle a church the size of the goal I've just set."

But here's what happened: As the church was growing, so was I. God had it all planned and knew I would grow to greater maturity before the church grew to larger portions.

9. DEPOSIT THE PRICE

There is always a price tag for reaching any goal. It doesn't matter whether it's a business, or a church, or any kind of dream. There's always a great sacrifice to reach your great goals. A lot of people I meet want to reach great goals or accomplish great dreams, but they only want to do it if it's convenient. It's as if they say, "I've got this dream, but I only want to do it in my spare time."

Ask yourself three questions at this stage:

-- "What will it cost me?"

-- "What am I willing to give?"

-- "Is the cause worth the cost?"

10. DEPEND ON PEOPLE

You will never achieve very much in life until you learn to get along with other people. John Rockefeller used to say there was one thing he'd pay more for than any other skill -- the ability to work with people. There are a lot of geniuses who can't get along with others. You've got to learn to depend on people because God works through people. It takes teamwork. Success is never a one-man show. NEVER! It's always a joint effort.

Ask yourself at this stage: "Who else can I involve?"

The secret of a great church is commitment and cooperation. When there is commitment and cooperation, God can do tremendous things. He can overlook all kinds of other things.

Vance Havner once said, "Snowflakes are frail but if enough of them stick together they can stop traffic."

You may not be able to do a lot by yourself, but when God's men and women get together, they can do anything.

I hope you'll take these principles and use them to re-evaluate your personal goals and the goals of your church. May God guide you and grant you the desires of your heart.

*

The Lewis and Clark Expedition - they were that bold group of explorers Thomas Jefferson sent to explore the largely uncharted Louisiana Purchase. The expedition, under the leadership of Captains Lewis and Clark, faced blazing heat, bone-chilling cold, close calls with vicious animals, attacking insects, the prospect of massacre by many Indian tribes whose land they were crossing, perilous passages, and even the death of one of their own. After a year and a half of paying a high price, Captain William Clark stood one day in the bow of his boat, pointed west up the Columbia River, and shouted, “Ocean in view!” Later he wrote in his journal: “Ocean in view! O the joy! Great joy in camp! We are in view of the ocean, this great Pacific Ocean which we had been so long anxious to see!”

Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “That Breathtaking Finish Line.”

When I saw that incredible moment dramatized in a movie recently, something happened in my heart. Because I saw myself at the bow of my boat some day, pointing ahead and shouting, “Heaven in view! O the joy!” There it will be - the gates of heaven. The entrance into the personal presence of the King I have served so long. The place - the Person - I had been “so long anxious to see!” The ultimate, triumphant finish line!

I don't know what kind of struggle you've been through. I don't know what the hardships, the hurts, the disappointments, the efforts have been in your life. But I do know that when you see your great reward, you'll never think again about the great struggle to get there. The Apostle Paul was one of Jesus' all-time great warriors. And in the last chapter of the last book of the Bible he ever wrote, he reflects on his journey and looks just upriver to his glorious finish line. It's in 2 Timothy, beginning in chapter 4, verse 6 - our word for today from the Word of God.

Paul tells his young protégé Timothy to “discharge all the duties of your ministry.” Why? “For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord ... will award to me on that day.” Let me translate this into how we might say it today: “Yee-hah! It's worth it all!”

Now, that isn't just about then. It's about now. When Paul was in the middle of the hardships, he said, “We do not lose heart ... for our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” Today's crushing troubles weigh in much lighter when you put heaven on the other side of the scale.

Remembering your finish line affects how you make today's values choices. You invest in what will matter in heaven, not what matters on earth. You'll spend on what will last. And with heaven in view, you realize you cannot let the people around you miss heaven because you didn't tell them how to get there.

Maybe you're not sure you're going to heaven when you die. Well, you can be. The Bible plainly says, “He that has the Son (that's Jesus), has life.” If you've put your trust in your only hope of heaven - Jesus, the one who died to pay for the sin that would keep you out of heaven - then you “have the Son” and you have heaven. If not, you are risking an awful eternity every day you live without Him. But this could be the day you tell Him you're all His - the day you change your eternal address from hell to heaven.

Death has no fear for the one who knows, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that heaven is on the other side. That Jesus is on the other side. For one of these days, the long, hard journey will be over and you'll be shouting, “Heaven in view!”

__________

Copyright © Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc., PO Box 400, Harrison, AR 72602. Used by permission. Written by Ron Hutchcraft. "Practical Answers to Real Life Issues"

*

[Original illustration at this number was added to HolwickID #7081]

The year was 1962...

David Glass, who headed up a successful retail drug chain in Missouri, decided that he would go to the opening of Sam

Walton's second store in Harrison, Arkansas. When he got there he found that

Sam Walton had dumped a couple of truckloads of watermelons out front. He had

donkeys in the parking lot for the children to ride. The temperature was 115. .

. So many of the watermelons had popped from the heat... and the donkeys

had done what donkeys do. "The parking lot was a mess," David Glass recalls.

"And inside the new store, it was just more of the same mess." "I concluded

that Sam Walton was a nice fellow," David Glass said, "but I wrote him

off. It was the worst store operation I had ever seen." Yet, the House of Morgan

predicts that in 1991 Sam Walton will become the No. 1 merchant in the United

States. Others predict it will take place in 1992. The wealth of his immediate

family --in the stock of his chain stores---is valued at $6.8 billion. But

David Glass remembers one thing: that even though Sam Walton was a nice

fellow and he had written him off... he said there was something about Sam

Walton, something inside him that made him improve every day. And that may

explain why

David Glass is the new president of Sam Walton's chain. Something

inside Sam Walton... made him improve every day! The success of Sam Walton is

not based on setting up ideals... but on setting up goals.

Vance Havner asked a preacher, "How are you getting along?" "We are

living in idolatry - just sitting around admiring our new church. We

have arrived; we have it made - no more worlds to conquer. What ought

to be a milestone has become a millstone. We have run out of goals. -

{C. Neil Strait}

{-} James Cox, ed. {The Ministers Manual for 1994} (San

Francisco: Harper & Collins Publishers, 1993) 311

A man or a woman without a goal is like a ship without a rudder. Each will drift and not drive. Each will end up on the beaches of despair, defeat and despondency.

John Henry Fabre, the great French naturalist, conducted a most unusual experiment with some Processionary Caterpillars. These caterpillars blindly follow the one in front of them. Hence, the name. Fabre carefully arranged them in a circle around the rim of a flower pot, so that the lead caterpillar actually touched the last one, making a complete circle. In the center of the flower pot he put pine needles, which is food for the Processionary Caterpillar.

The caterpillars started around this circular flower pot. Around and around they went, hour after hour, day after day, night after night. For seven full days and seven full nights they went around the flower pot. Finally, they dropped dead of starvation and exhaustion.

With an abundance of food less than six inches away, they literally starved to death, because they confused activity with accomplishment. Many Christians make that same mistake.

The FBI went into one town to investigate the work of what appeared to be a sharpshooter. They were amazed to find many bull’s-eyes drawn around town, with bullets that had penetrated the exact center of the targets. When they finally found the man who had been doing the shooting, they asked him about the technique he used to attain such accuracy. The answer was simple. He shot the bullet first, and drew the bull’s-eye later.

That may be an easy way to have the appearance of hitting the mark, but it is at best a deception and at worst a lie. So it is with goals. We should use them to direct our work and determine if we have accomplished our purposes, not to defend what we happened to do.

[also see #7816 for a different angle]

There's a well-worn story of a man who approached a laborer who was laying bricks and asked him, “What are you doing?” The laborer said, “Can't you see I'm laying bricks.”

The man then walked over to another bricklayer and asked, “What are you doing?” And the workman answered with pride, “I'm building a cathedral.”

Both were physically doing the same thing. But the first laborer was occupied with the present task, and the other was concerned with the ultimate goal.

*

Florence Chadwick wanted to be the first woman to swim from

Catalina Island to Long Beach, a total of 26 miles. After many

tortured, painful hours, she quit. She was unable to see the

shoreline due to a heavy fog. Afterwards, she learned that she had

ended her quest only a short distance from the shore. She cried, "If

only I had been aboe to see my goal, I could have made it!"

- Ted Taylor, "Start Early: Adult Planning 1994-95" {The Sunday

School Leader: Larger Church Edition} (Nashville: Sunday School Board

of the SBC, May 1994) 63

Run, Patti, Run

At a young and tender age, Patti Wilson was told by her

doctor that she was an epileptic. Her father, Jim Wilson, is a

morning jogger. One day she smiled through her teenage braces and

said, “Daddy what I’d really love to do is run with you every

day, but I’m afraid I’ll have a seizure.”

Her father told her, “If you do, I know how to handle it so

let’s start running!”

That’s just what they did every day. It was a wonderful

experience for them to share and there were no seizures at all

while she was running. After a few weeks, she told her father,

“Daddy, what I’d really love to do is break the world’s long-

distance running record for women.”

Her father checked the Guiness Book of World Records and

found that the farthest any woman had run was 80 miles. As a

freshman in high school, Patti announced, “I’m going to run from

Orange County up to San Francisco.” (A distance of 400 miles.)

“As a sophomore,” she went on, “I’m going to run to Portland,

Oregon.” (Over 1,500 miles.) “As a junior I’ll run to St. Louis.

(About 2,000 miles.) “As a senior I’ll run to the White House.”

(More than 3,000 miles away.)

In view of her handicap, Patti was as ambitious as she was

enthusiastic, but she said she looked at the handicap of being an

epileptic as simply “an inconvenience.” She focused not on what

she had lost, but on what she had left.

That year she completed her run to San Francisco wearing a

T-shirt that read, “I love Epileptics.” Her dad ran every mile at

her side, and her mom, a nurse, followed in a motor home behind

them in case anything went wrong.

In her sophomore year Patti’s classmates got behind her.

They built a giant poster that read, “Run, Patti, Run!” (This has

since become her motto and the title of a book she has written.)

On her second marathon, en route to Portland, she fractured a

bone in her foot. A doctor told her she had to stop her run. He

said, “I’ve got to put a cast on your ankle so that you don’t

sustain permanent damage.”

“Doc, you don’t understand,” she said. “This isn’t just a

whim of mine, it’s a magnificient obsession! I’m not just doing

it for me, I’m doing it to break the chains on the brains that

limit so many others. Isn’t there a way I can keep running?” He

gave her one option. He could wrap it in adhesive instead of

putting it in a cast. He warned her that it would be incredibly

painful, and told her, “It will blister.” She told the doctor to wrap it up.

She finished the run to Portland, completing her last mile

with the governor of Oregon. You may have seen the headlines:

“Super Runner, Patti Wilson Ends Marathon For Epilepsy On Her

17th Birthday.”

After four months of almost continuous running from West

Coast to the East Coast, Patti arrived in Washington and shook

the hand of the President of the United States. She told him, “I

wanted people to know that epileptics are normal human beings

with normal lives.”

I told this story at one of my seminars not long ago, and

afterward a big teary-eyed man came up to me, stuck out his big

meaty hand and said, “Mark, my name is Jim Wilson. You were

talking about my daughter, Patti.” Because of her noble efforts,

he told me enough money had been raised to open up 19 multi-

million-dollar epileptic centers around the country.

If Patti Wilson can do so much with so little, what can you

do to outperform yourself in a state of total wellness?

By Mark V. Hansen from Chicken Soup for the Soul

Copyright 1993 by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen

AVOIDING TEMPTATIONS

====================

AVOID THE TEMPTATION to get rich quick.

Everybody wants everything instantly - instant rice, instant pudding, instant success - served in pabulum form. My father was from Germany, and he said, "Always take time to be an apprentice and learn the whole job." I did this ... and it worked!

AVOID THE TEMPTATION to take shortcuts.

Taking shortcuts cutting corners is a character flaw. You will be building on sand, and it will surely collapse. It always has. It always will.

AVOID THE TEMPTATION to believe that "The grass is greener on the other side of the fence."

We need to stay focused on where we are now, what we are doing now, our present opportunity, our present job, our present activity. We need to be able to make our present responsibilities work, whatever price we have to pay.

AVOID THE TEMPTATION to quit too soon.

History books, story books, and movies are filled with illustrations and parables of people who quit "three feet too soon digging for gold." Just one more try to complete an invention; just one more call to make a sale.

COLLECTIVELY WHAT DO ALL THESE TEMPTATIONS CAUSE?

They cause you to ...

Lose sight of your goals,

Develop a lack of confidence, and

Suffer from an eroding self-esteem.

HOW DO YOU AVOID THIS?

1. Commit to a singleness of purpose.

2. Set and put into writing specific and clearly defined goals.

3. Outline exact action steps you must take to achieve your goals.

4. Repeat daily affirmations to support your goals.

5. Form a support group of your spouse, friends, associates, and

work partners.

6. Create an accountability factor.

I don't have enough paper to write or tell you the thousand sad stories I know about from my lifetime of all the educated, gifted, and talented people who fell into the temptation to get rich quick, looked for something for nothing, ceased to persist and do, believed false promises, and took a shortcut.

It is very sad to watch people chase false dreams - or their tails, the wind, and rainbows.

A solid life of personal success, family success, and business success is built more like climbing stairs than by mounting a rocket ship.

=========================================================

Paul J. Meyer Copyright (r) 1999 Paul J. Meyer ALL RIGHTS

*

Ida and David both wanted all their sons to graduate from college. They knew their boys would have to pay their own way since David never made more than $150 a month. Still, they encouraged their sons to achieve all they could. Arthur, however, went directly from high school to a job. Edgar began studying law. When Dwight graduated he didn't have a goal in mind, so he and Ed made a pact: Dwight would work two years while Ed studied, sending Ed as much as he could, and then they would reverse the arrangement. While working Dwight found an opportunity that appealed to him more than college - West Point.

Both Ida and David were crushed by Dwight's decision. Ida was deeply convinced that soldiering was wicked. Still, all she ever said to him was, "It is your choice." David also remained silent, allowing his adult son full freedom to forge his own future.

Yes, Ida and David wisely held their tongues - but they never withheld their applause, especially on the day their son, General Dwight Eisenhower, became President of the United States of America.

From God's Little Devotional Book

from A Cup of Chicken Soup for the Soul - Copyright 1996 by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen & Barry Spilchuk

"You must be single-minded. Drive for one thing on which you have decided."

-- George S. Patton

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."

-- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"The single common denominator of men and women who achieve great things is a sense of destiny."

-- Brian Tracy

"A man may fulfill the object of his existence by asking a question he cannot answer, and attempting a task he cannot achieve."

-- Oliver Wendell Holmes

"Pray that your loneliness may spur you into finding something to live for, great enough to die for."

-- Dag Hammarskjold

"The longer I live, the more I am certain that the great difference between the great and the insignificant, is energy - invincible determination - a purpose once fixed and then death or victory."

-- Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton

"Your purpose is the essence of who you are. It is the reason you are alive. To know your purpose, you first have to know who you are."

-- Idelette van Papendorp, editor, B&P 8/26/02

“When you were born, you cried and everybody else was happy. The only question that matters is this: When you die, will YOU be happy when everybody else is crying?”

-— Tony Campolo

"You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand."

-- Woodrow T. Wilson, QFTM 2/22/03

“To reach a port, we must sail — sail, not tie at anchor — sail, not drift.”

-- Franklin Delano Roosevelt

“Every living creature that comes into the world has something allotted him to perform; therefore, he should not stand an idle spectator of what others are doing.”

-- Sarah Kirby Trimmer

"To be what we are and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the end of life."

-- Robert Louis Stevenson

"If I can stop one heart from breaking,

I shall not live in vain;

If I can ease one life the aching,

Or cool one pain,

Or help one fainting robin

Into his nest again,

I shall not live in vain."

-- Emily Dickinson

"The great purpose of life is to spend it on something that will outlast it."

-- Unknown

"The average man, who does not know what to do with his life, wants another one which will last forever."

-- Anatole France

"Millions long for immortality who don't know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon."

-- Susan Ertz, in her book Anger in the Sky (1943)

"May you live all the days of your life."

-- Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)

”Out of difficulties grow miracles.” — Jean De La Bruyere

“Someone’s opinion of you does not have to become your reality.” — Les Brown

WHY DO WE NEED GOALS?

• Goals give you direction in all areas of your life – Personal, Career, Spiritual, Material, and Contribution.

• Goals give you a purpose in life. A reason to get up early in the morning and go to bed late at night.

• Goals will put drive and passion into your life.

• Not having goals is similar to sailing a ship across the Atlantic without a map. Goals, like maps, help you get to your destination much faster than sailing though life aimlessly.

HOW DO I SET GOALS?

• First you must dream!

° Dream of everything you want, and have always wanted in every facet of your life.

° There are no limits. Ask yourself, “What would I attempt to do, if I knew I could not fail?” “What would I want for my life if I knew I could have it?”

° Allow yourself to dream like you did as a child. Let your imagination run wild!

• Brainstorm

° Write your ideas down on paper and decide which ones are the most important to you.

° Review what you have written down on paper.

• Prioritize

° Now its is time to define your dream precisely. Which of these goals are most important to you, and why?

° On a fresh piece of paper, write down one goal at a time. Beside the heading, write down a deadline for achieving that goal. Be sure that the deadline is realistic.

• Schedule

° To help achieve the long term goal, set a time line using short term goals. For example, if your long term personal goal is to loose 60 lbs. in one year, set short term goals leading up to the long term goal. In this example you might set short term goal to loose 5 lbs. per month. This is an effective way to evaluating your progress helping you to determine if you have to make changes to your action plan.

THE SECRETS OF ACHIEVING YOUR GOALS

1. Make your goals Inspirational

You need to set goals grand enough to challenge yourself. Remember that if you don’t have to push yourself beyond your current limits to reach your goals, you’re not really achieving anything. To truly be successful, and reach your true potential, you must constantly push yourself to move outside of your “comfort zone”.

2. Define your goals with Clarity

Be precise in what you want. The more clearly defined your goal is, the easier it will be to attain. For example, let’s say you want to buy a house. To say you want to buy a house is not enough. To find a house you’ll really be happy with, you have to specify exactly what you want. Do you want to live in the country or the city? Do you want a two storey or a bungalow? Do you want a brick house or a wood house? How many square feet do you want? Do you want a pool? How much can you afford? As you can see there are many questions to ask.

The more questions you ask yourself, and are able to answer, the clearer your goal will be. Once you know the exact outcome you want, you will be able to create an action plan that will ensure your success.

3. Write a Paragraph

Write a paragraph or two describing exactly why you absolutely must attain your goal. Write down all the reasons why you are committed to attain your goal. Feel the emotion stir up inside of you. Feel the passion and drive. This will bring the goal to life!

How would you feel one year from now if you were to attain all your goals? How would that make you feel about yourself? Would your feel proud? Would your self-esteem be increased? Would you feel unstoppable? Would you feel more confident in your ability? What results would you get from reaching your goals? Would you have greater job security? Would you be up for a promotion? Would you be earning more money? Would your family and friends be proud of you? How would that make you feel?

4. Write Another Paragraph!

This paragraph or two should explain what will happen if you don’t attain your goal. How will you feel? What will happen to your lifestyle? Will you be embarrassed? Will you loose self-esteem? Will you loose your job? The more emotion you can put behind the reasons why you must succeed and why you must not fail, the more committed to attaining your goals you will become.

5. Constantly Evaluate Your Progress

Having an action plan is not enough. The captain in the previous example will have to constantly evaluate his progress in order to be sure he is on target. Unforeseen obstacles are sure to arise, such as a hailstorm, or increased southerly winds. As a result, he may have to increase his speed or guide the boat in a more westerly direction. In other words, notice what is working and what is not. If an approach is not working, don’t waste your time with it. Change your approach.

6. Never Lose Sight of Your Goal

Take the time to review your goals every morning when you get up and every night before you go to bed. This will keep them fresh in your mind. If you think reviewing your goals twice a day is too much to ask, maybe you should reevaluate what it is you want. Ask yourself, “How important is it to me that I attain my goals?”

7. Don’t Procrastinate

Procrastination is a “silent killer”. Understand that the only way to achieve your goals is to take action! Knowledge means nothing if you don’t apply it. How many people have you come across with an unbelievable amount of education working a mediocre job? The world is full of people who don’t apply their knowledge. On the other hand, chances are you know of people with less educational background who apply everything they learn. These people are usually the ones who are most successful in all areas of their lives. Do something right now that will help you to achieve your goals. There is no time like the present! Get the ball rolling. Each step you take brings you one step closer to the life you want. Remember the motto, “The road to Someday, leads to the town of Nowhere”. Someday is today!

THE BENEFITS OF GOAL SETTING

You will notice an increase in your energy level as you begin to live your life with passion – the passion that having a meaningful goal will give you. You will be in control of your life and the direction you are heading. Your life does not have to be determined by fate alone. With goals, you create your destiny. Goals give you a purpose in life. A reason to get up early and go to bed late.

EVIDENCE

The following are examples of individuals who have achieved their goals. How has it changed their lives and possibly the lives of others?

• Mother Teresa

• Nelson Mandella

• Michael Jordan

• Mark McGwire

What goals have you achieved that have changed your life, and possibly the lives of others? Maybe it was,

• Education

• Relationship

• New car

• Job interview

• Weight loss

• Exercise program

Everything you do is a cause set in motion. No matter how small the act may seem, it will ultimately have an effect on your life.

OBSERVATIONS

You will soon notice your mind will become a magnet for attracting any information or opportunity that can help you achieve your goals more rapidly. For example, have you ever played the game, “Punch Buggy?” If not, it goes something like this. When driving in a car with a friend, the first person to see a Volkswagen “Bug” gets to punch the other person in the shoulder while exclaiming the color of the car “Punch Buggy Red”! Once you begin playing this game, you will be surprised to find how quickly your arm becomes sore! That’s right, all of a sudden you will become a magnet for Volkswagen “Bugs”! Everywhere you look, you will see one.

The same thing is true of your goals. When you know exactly what you are looking for, it will mysteriously present itself. This is based on the phenomenon that You Get What You Focus On. Remember to “enjoy the ride’. This is the key to a successful life. There is little point in only allowing yourself to enjoy life at the point of achieving a goal. If that were the case, think of all the time that would be spent not fully enjoying your life. Learn to happily achieve rather than achieving to be happy. After all, whether you are conscious of it or not, the majority of your time is spent striving to achieve goals. Such as, getting up in the morning, getting to work on time, making time to see a friend of loved one, and so on. Although these “goals” are pretty exciting, let’s not forget the big ones. The ones we create with passion and drive. The goals that can truly change our lives if we commit to pursuing them.

SUMMARY

If you are dissatisfied with some aspect of your life, get excited. All it means is you now what you don’t want. Now its is time to determine exactly what you do want. Clarify exactly what it is you want and create a time frame for getting it. Write one or two paragraphs why you must attain your goals and one or two paragraphs why you must not fail to attain your goals. Keep a close eye on your progress. If what you are doing is not working, change your approach. Review your goals twice daily. This will keep you focused.

The time to change your life is now. Not tomorrow, not the next day. Take time to invest in the future you want. You have the power to create your own destiny

~~~~~~~~~~

GOALS The Power Line to Success and Achievement — A Hands-On Goal Setting Workshop

By Glen Hopkins

God didn’t give you a first birth so that you could be a failure. If you are a Christian, then He didn’t give you a second birth so that you should be a spiritual failure. In either case, if we fail, we didn’t live up to the potential God had in mind for us.

Phil. 1:6 (NLT) says, “And I am sure that God, who began the good work within you (starting with both births), will continue His work until it is finally finished on that day when Jesus Christ comes back again.” That’s His plan — to work within you,” if you’ll let Him. Don’t expect Him to do everything for you. We each have a responsibility to God to praise Him with our life by meeting our potential. You can do it?

• “Ideas without action are worthless.” — Harvey Mackay

• “Some folks go through life pleased that the glass is half-full. Others spend a lifetime lamenting that it’s half-empty. The truth is: There is a glass with a certain volume of liquid in it. From there, it’s up to you!” — Dr. James S. Vuocolo

• “Nine-tenths of wisdom is appreciation. Go find somebody’s hand and squeeze it, while there’s time.” — Dale Dauten

• Don’t spend the last half of your life regretting the first half.

• Emotion without devotion is nothing but commotion

• “How you respond to the challenge in the second half will determine what you become after the game, whether you are a winner or a loser.” — Lou Holtz, college football coach

Questions to Ponder

1. What is my current second-half challenge?

2. How do I define winning in this situation?

3. How do I define a “Winner” in life?