Setting Your Mark
On a farm, everyone has to pitch in to make things work. Once a lady who was inexperienced at driving a tractor was asked by her husband to drive a tractor across a field pulling a disc. Not sure how to do the job her husband instructed her to pick out an object at the end of the field and drive toward it, that way her path would remain straight.
So she put the tractor in gear and off she went toward the other end of the field. It wasn't long before she noticed her husband running alongside the tractor trying to get her attention. She stopped and asked, "What's wrong?"
Upon looking at him she noticed that her path was rather crooked as opposed to the straight line she needed to drive. Her husband again explained she needed to pick out an object and drive toward it. She said, "I did."
"What are you driving toward?" he asked. She pointed to the object down at the end of the row, which at that point she realized was a bird which had been hopping across the ground.
We have to be careful when we set our mark that we set it on something or someone that is sure and stationary.
The mark set by the world is ever-shifting, but the truths found in Christ are sure and stationary. To keep your life heading in the right direction, make sure you set your mark on Jesus.
"Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God" (Hebrews 12:2).
"Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ." (1 Corinthians 11:1, NKJV)
Forget What's Behind
As I sat on my assigned snowmobile listening to the instructor's briefing, I noticed that something was missing. My machine didn't have a rearview mirror. As I looked around at the other students, I didn't see one on any of their machines, either. In fact, the only snowmobile equipped with side rearview mirrors was the instructors. When I asked the instructor the reason for this, he explained that the outfitter didn't want us to be distracted by what was behind us, but to keep our eyes on the leader.
Don’t allow what has happened in your past to distract you from following your leader, Jesus.
"...I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us" (Philippians 3:13-14).
Man Sues Hospital After He Didn't Die
In 2005, a man named John Brandick went to the doctor with troubling symptoms. The hospital performed some tests, told him he had terminal pancreatic cancer and only one year to live. When Mr. Brandick heard this news, he decided it was time to live the good life. He quit his job. He sold his home. His sold his car and most of his clothing. He started spending his life savings. He traveled. He ate at expensive restaurants. He splurged.
About a year later, around the time he was supposed to die, he went back to the hospital to find out why he was doing so well. It turned out, he didn’t have cancer after all. He merely had an inflammation of the pancreas. He was not dying. He was going to live!
Think for a moment how you would respond if you thought you were going to die of cancer and then found out you were cancer free! Mr. Brandick’s response? He sued the hospital for misdiagnosing him!
Instead of suing the hospital, perhaps Mr. Brandick should have been thankful for a year of living his life to the fullest. How many of us ever really do that? It is interesting that it took facing a death sentence before John Brandick really began to live.
What is holding you back from living your life to the full? Jesus said, "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full" (John 10:10). Have you experienced what Jesus promised you? If not, why not? Perhaps the answer is found where He also said, "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it" (Matthew 16:24-25).
In other words, the key to real life, abundant life, is death. Death by way of self-denial and self-sacrifice. Just as Mr. Brandick only began to really live be embracing his own death, so we find our lives by losing them.
Ironically, the meaning and purpose for which we were created can only be experienced in death.
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