Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “The world makes a way for the man who knows where he is going.”

Or even a ten year old, like Jackson Rogers.

A couple of years ago, First Presbyterian Church of San Antonio initiated an innovative outreach program. They gave certain members of the congregation — those who volunteered to participate — $100 in cash and challenged them to use the money in some capacity to further God’s kingdom.

Jackson was one of the volunteers. He took the money and put together a plan to turn the $100 into $50,000 — enough to build a Habitat for Humanity home. He spent the money on paper and stamps, then wrote hundreds of letters to friends and relatives, asking them to contribute to the project. Some sent money. Some even forwarded his letter to more friends, inviting them to participate. Within weeks, Jackson’s letter raised $43,000. It was a little short of the goal, so his church took a special offering to make up the difference.

This ten year old boy singlehandedly designed and implemented a successful campaign to build a house for a needy family in his community. And the world made a way for him. That’s the power of having a vision fueled by focus and direction.

It reminds me of the words of Paul.

(v. 26) I do not run like a man running aimlessly, I do not fight like a man beating the air.

The world is waiting to clear the way for you to fulfill the vision God has given you.

(Adapted from Steve May’s book, Vision: Take Hold of Your Horizon.)

An article in Fast Company Magazine tells about a conversation between the sculptor Henry Moore and the literary critic Donald Hall. Hall said to Moore, “Now that you’re 80 years old, you must know the secret of life. What is it?” The great artist thought for a moment and said, “The secret of life is to have a task, something you do your entire life, something you bring everything to, every minute of the day, for your whole life. And the most important thing is: It must be something you cannot possibly do.”

Paul talks about the ‘one thing’ in his life: preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. He says…

“Yet when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, for I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!” (1 Corinthians 9:16)

Sharing the gospel was the one thing that motivated Paul. It drove him forward day after day.

What about you? Is there something of which you can say, “Woe to me if I do not do this”? What one thing do you pursue with more passion than anything else?

(Adapted from Steve May’s book, Vision: Take Hold of Your Horizon.)

In 1730 a church in Sussex, England posted this sign:

A vision without a task is but a dream;
a task without a vision is drudgery;
a vision and a task is the hope of the world.

I can relate. When my work becomes drudgery it is inevitably because I have become more focused on the task, less focused on the vision God has given me. Both are necessary.

As far as drudgery goes, I personally can’t imagine anything more dull than selling shoes out of the back of one’s car, but that’s what Phillip Knight did. After launching his own athletic shoe company with $500 of borrowed money, he spent several years crossing the northwest, hawking shoes at track meets and mall parking lots. Not my idea of a dream job, but Knight loved it. Eventually the idea took off. His shoe company, now called Nike, became … well, you know who they are.

That’s what vision does for you. It transforms the drudgery of a task into the thrill of an adventure. And it always leads to great things.

What’s your vision?

(Adapted from Steve May’s book, Vision: Take Hold of Your Horizon.)

“If you are not guided by God, you will be guided by someone or something else.” (Eric Liddell)

The majority get their sense of direction, as well as their general sense of right and wrong, from their peers. I would say that this applies to most believers, even many leaders. We let the group do our thinking for us: what we should want, what we should like, what we should do, and where we should go. This is why sins such as racism, gossip, and greed are overlooked in some circles, while “sins” such as voting the wrong way or listening to the wrong music are considered cardinal.

Getting guidance from God means that you’ll often stand alone, but it also means that you’ll see more clearly than the rest. David said, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.” (Psalm 119:105)

Our challenge is to look to God, not culture (not even the evangelical Christian subculture)  for guidance. Let God’s Word establish your steps and dictate your values.

It gave Noah the courage to build a boat. And Moses the courage to cross the Red Sea. And Joshua the courage to say, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” It caused David to pick up five smooth stones. And Elijah to stand up to the prophets of Baal. And Jesus to speak up for the woman caught in adultery. And Peter to confront the Sanhedrin.

Letting God chart your course may separate you from the in-crowd, but it will also bring meaning and purpose and power into your life.

In the movie Clean Slate, Dana Carvey plays a private detective involved in a murder investigation. The problem is that he has anterograde amnesia and is unable to remember any details of his life from the day before. So each day as he wakes up he listens to a tape reminding him of who he is and why he is here.

Just like Carvey’s character, sometimes it’s easy to forget day-after-day just who the real “you” is. It’s not a bad idea to pick up his habit — beginning each day with a reminder of who you are and why you are here. You don’t get it from a tape, you get it from the Word.

Who are you? A child of God. A friend of Jesus. A new creation. Whole and complete. Forgiven. Accepted. Chosen. Renewed. Alive. And that’s just the beginning.

Each new day is a clean slate, another chance to live the life God called you to live, to be the person he called you to be. Forget yesterday. Remind yourself today of who you are in Christ, and who Christ is in you. Let this be your identity. Let this determine who you are and what you do.

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:23)

Sometimes I wish I had a better memory. I have a tendency to forget things, like where I put my keys, or an important phone number, or the exact content of certain conversations. It can be really annoying, both for me and for the victims of my forgetfulness.

I recently read about a woman who has the opposite problem. Her name is Jill Price, and her memory has been the subject of scientific tests for many years, because she never forgets anything. She is able to remember every detail of everyday since 1980: What time she got up, what she did, who she met, and what she ate. You can name a date and within seconds she can tell you what day of the week it was and what took place on that day.

Neuroscientists are intrigued by her “condition”, but she considers it a curse. She says, “Some memories are good and give me a warm safe feeling. But I also recall every bad decision, insult, and excruciating embarrassment. Over the years it has eaten me up.” She blames her memory for many years of depression.

In college I had a friend with a photographic memory, though not to such an extreme extent. He told me once that he had to learn “selective recall.” Otherwise, when people asked about his day, he would tell them everything: about choosing his socks and tying his shoes and every song he heard on the radio and every street sign he passed and on and on. He had to learn to make the choice to not remember every little thing about every single day. If Ms. Price could do the same thing, I’m sure she would.

It’s what we need to do. We need to learn to forget — to intentionally not remember — certain details of our lives. Which details? The details of those events which do not empower us to live a Godly life in Christ Jesus. Reliving the shame of a sin you committed yesterday or 30 years ago will not help you live in Christ today. Remembering the humiliation of a past defeat or the pain of a past rejection will not empower you to move toward the prize today.

That’s why Paul said, “Forgetting 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.” (Philippians 3:13-14)

It’s a choice you make. It’s not always easy, because memories (especially the worst ones) can be tenacious. Every pastor, every leader, every parent, every spouse, every believer needs to learn selective recall.

You don’t have to dwell on the past. In fact, we are commanded to put it behind us and to start looking ahead. You have God’s permission to forget everything from yesterday that doesn’t strengthen you today.

A married couple was driving down the road. The wife turned to the husband and said, “What’s happened with us?”

“What do you mean?” the husband asked.

She said, “We’re not like we used to be.”

“How did we used to be?” the husband asked.

“We were closer. More connected. We held hands all the time. In fact, here’s a perfect example right now. Remember when we’d get in the car, and we’d sit right next to each other, with me there in the middle.”

The husband turned to her and said, “Who moved?”

This story has a spiritual application. If you’re not as close to God as you used to be, you’re the one who moved. Not him. If you want to get back to where you used to be, you need to move in his direction. And if you want to be closer to God than you’ve ever been, if you want to reach a new level in your relationship with him, all you need to do is move in his direction.

Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. (James 4:8 NKJV)

This isn’t  a one-time event. It’s a lifestyle. The first time, and every time, you draw near to God, he draws near to you.

Try it today. Move toward him. Turn off the TV and listen to Christian music. Or stop for a moment to sing a hymn, and make the words a prayer. Spend a few minutes in his Word, a few minutes thanking him for everything. As you take steps in his direction, he takes steps in yours.

If you want to be closer to God, it’s your move.

Here’s an old joke. I love this little story.

A family from from the sticks made their first trip to the big city, and were in awe of the fast cars, the crowded streets, and the sky-scraper buildings. As mom did some window shopping, father and son walked into the lobby of a hotel. Near the front desk they saw something they had never seen before: a pair of sliding doors opening into a “small room.”

As they were standing there gawking at the small room, a short, frail woman in her seventies walked past them, stepped inside, pressed a button and the doors shut. A few moments later, the door opened and out stepped a tall, beautiful woman in her twenties. The man turned to his boy and said, “Son, go get your mother.”

It would be nice if transformation were this simple, just a matter of stepping into a room and pushing a button.

It would be nice if we could instantly swap our weakness and failures for strength and obedience.

It would be nice, but that’s not how it is.

It’s true that there’s no delay in receiving God’s mercy; his grace is both immediate and permanent. But the transformation to holiness is a process. It requires daily persistence. In fact, the willingness to keep trying, even after a failure, is itself a demonstration of holiness.

Solomon said, “For though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again…” (Proverbs 24:16)

The righteous man falls, like we all do. But notice that he didn’t get righteous at the push of a button or the flip of a switch. He got righteous by doing what we all need to do. He got up and tried again.

Is there an area of your life in which you’ve been tempted to stay down, to give up on ever getting it right? Here’s what leads a person to righteousness: the determination to get up and try again. –SM

There’s a scene in the movie Bonnie and Clyde where the couple is holed up somewhere in a hideout, unable to leave because the cops are on their trail. It has become obvious to them that this life of crime isn’t as glamorous as they had once imagined.

Bonnie Parker is dreaming of a new life somewhere, a clean life, where they could start over and live as other people do. She asks Clyde, “What would you do if some miracle occurred and we were able to walk out here clean, with no record, and nobody after us? What would you do?”

Clyde Barrow thinks for a moment and says something along the lines of, “I guess I’d do things different. First, I wouldn’t live in the same state where I pulled my bank jobs, and when I wanted to rob a bank, I’d go to another state…” Bonnie turns away in disappointment. This isn’t at all what she had in mind, but that’s Clyde Barrow for you.

This is where some people get confused about grace.

The Bible tells us that “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1)

This means that the slate is clean and we’re free to walk out the door and live a brand new life. But something about the old man prefers life on the run, and we sometimes find ourselves going back to that dreadful, painfully unglamorous existence.

We were saved from the muck, and yet, sometimes we can’t wait get to back in it. This is the Clyde Barrow in each of us, that sinful creature who is always longing to return to the old way of life.

God sets you free. He gives you a fresh start, so that you will never have to go back to a life on the lam. God pours out his grace not so that you can be a better Clyde Barrow, but so that you can experience the dreams of a Bonnie Parker — the dreams of a new life, free from the chains of the past, free from guilt, free to start again.

Bonnie and Clyde were both criminals, both sinners, both condemned. But this (probably fictional) vignette from their lives gives us an insight into ourselves. Your inner Clyde Barrow may want to use this freedom as an excuse to sin more, but God has given you this grace so that that other self inside you — the one with those Bonnie Parker dreams — can experience the full freedom of life in Christ.

It’s a question of whose dreams you will choose follow today. You’ve been set free, pardoned, and released. You can walk out the door. How are you going to live as a free person?

In his book “The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork,” John Maxwell mentions business consultant John Ghegan, who keeps a sign on his desk that says…

“If I had it to do all over again, I’d get help.”

Too often, we try to accomplish alone the things that God intended us to accomplish together. Take a look at your schedule for the next few days. There’s probably one item, maybe two, maybe many, begging for the inclusion of others. The path of least resistance is going it alone. The path of greatest accomplishment is taking on projects with others.

So, do today what you’ll wish later that you did. Get some help.

Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up! (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10)