It's not like I don't have any projects that can be done, it's just those aren't the things that I want to do at the moment. One good thing that has come out of this temporary void is the extra time has helped me focus more on this ministry and the things we are lacking, but even then, I'm stuck on the things that I need to help me to complete a presentation that would hopefully bring the finances we need to take this ministry to the next level.

I am a person that has to have a goal to shoot for in my life and I don't like being stuck in the middle of trying to get things done, I become impatient like I am now, because I start to feel like I'm spinning my wheels and I'm not getting anywhere. That is not a good place for me to be. So I started to think about my situation, and people in general, and I saw something that I have never seen before. I knew that everyone has to have a goal in their lives, but what I didn't know was, that if they don't have a goal to shoot for, then they try to fill that emptiness with mundane routines. And if they did them long enough, once they were in them, then it became hard to get out of doing them.

If they did them for a long enough period of time, over and over, day after day, then they became stuck in a rut that eventually became more and more comfortable as time went on. Things that they never would have settled for before, had replaced the goals that they had once made for their lives.

Why ?

These routines had become an easy goal for them to be able to accomplish. If they completed these minor, mundane tasks that they set out to do that day, then that was all they needed, it was victory for them, and that victory made them feel productive, which gave them a false sense of accomplishment, which people really don't need in their lives.

When people start to settle for mediocrity, they set the bar of their life so low that anything they accomplish is better than nothing.

Do you know what the problem with setting the bar low is ?

You stop trying to reach out further, you stop trying to stretch yourself and make yourself more than what you are. You start to settle for the scraps that fall off the table of your life, instead of taking your life by the horns and getting the real productivity that every person living needs and deserves. Every man and woman on this planet needs a goal that they can shoot for, and if they don't have that goal, they simply waste away slowly and die.

How many people have you seen have given up on life ?

I've seen too many, and do you know what the worst thing about that is ?

They want to take you down with them. Misery loves company because they are the only one's that will keep giving hearty approval to bad behavior.

Is God amused by anyone's bad behavior ?

Never. Mocking God and immoral acts are nothing more than wounded people who have given up on themselves, people who have their bar set so low that they feel validated by others who have their bar set at the same height.

You have to have a goal that causes you to reach higher and press on, living a life of truth, honesty and focus. You have to set the bar high and do all you can to reach that goal no matter how much sacrifice is involved. Sometimes when there is sacrifice, there is pain, there is loss and there is pruning involved. Some of those things that you used to do have to be set aside for the greater good in your life, the problem is, people don't want to give anything up, they don't want to sacrifice anything that they have become comfortable with.

Paul the Apostle had a goal that He was set his mind on to accomplish. His goal wasn't to have all the money in the world he could get his greedy mitts on, he had money before he became an apostle. Paul came from one of the richest families in Israel, he was educated by the finest scholars of his time, so he didn't need money.

So what was his goal ?

4 though I myself might have confidence even in the flesh: if any other man seems to have confidence in the flesh, I yet more: 5 circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; 6 as touching zeal, persecuting the church; as touching the righteousness which is in the law, found blameless. 7 However what things were gains to me, these have I counted loss for Christ. 8 Truthfully, and I count all things to be loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but refuse, that I may gain Christ, 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of mine own, or even that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith: 10 that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed unto his death;11 if by any means I may attain unto the resurrection from the dead.12 Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect: but I press on, so that I may grab hold on that for which also I was grabbed hold on by Christ Jesus. 13 Brethren, I count not myself to have laid hold of yet: but one thing I do , forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before, 14 I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus. Phil 3: 4-14

Even though Paul had all the riches a man could want at one time in his life, even though he was a Pharisee of Pharisee's, even though he kept the law as perfectly as a human man could keep it, he had a goal later on in his life that was greater than life itself, it cost him all that he had in this world, it was the goal of knowing Jesus Christ and the power of His resurrection, His mercy and grace that he gave to Paul and all who come to Him in faith and completing the task that was set before him, a task that was the greatest goal in itself, to be glorified with Christ in heaven, a task that was bigger than himself.

You can have everything in this world, or you can have nothing in this world, but if you have a reason to get up everyday that causes you to reach out beyond yourself, something that causes you to push onward and keep moving ahead, then you have discovered the true riches that are to be found in this life, and you don't have to have monetary riches to have it.

Paul counted everything that he had before as refuse, it was all crap compared to what he had inside of himself. Paul knew that if he grabbed on to the hand of Jesus Christ his Savior, that he would receive more than riches than money, fame or recognition could ever buy, and he was beheaded because of that goal that he had set for himself.

Am I saying that we all have to be like Paul ?

Not at all, we don't have a choice in those matters, we can't determine one day to the next which is in the right path that we all have to walk on, only God knows that. I know that God calls us to live a life of purity, love and righteousness. I also know that in spite of all that, we all have to have a goals in our lives. We all have to know Jesus, and the power of his resurrection just like Paul did, because we are wired to need to know that, it is built into our DNA. We all have to decide for Him or against Him, there is no middle road to heaven.

When we have a goal, we have direction, when we have direction, we can exercise faith. Without a goal we loose faith and when we loose faith, we loose hope.

Do you believe that ?

I believe it, because I see people all the time who have substituted goals, dreams and hope for defeat, apathy and hopelessness.

Defeat, because they spend their days broken and unable to get themselves out of the rut that they have dug for themselves.

Apathy, because they settle for the mediocrity that they have grown comfortable with and have trouble applying themselves to things which will free them from the snares that they have unwittingly set for themselves over time.

Hopelessness, because they are afraid to reach out with a spirit of adventure, to find out what awaits them around the next bend of their lives. They are paralyzed and unable to move ahead, they are paralyzed with the fear of the unknown.

What will I have to give up ?
What is going to cost me ?

These are the two biggest questions that people will have to confront themselves with right away when they are close to making a decision to follow Jesus or not.

Here's what Jesus said:

27 And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, not sit down first, and count the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it ? 29 Unwittingly, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, and all that watch it begin to mock him, 30 Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish. 31 Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first, and consult whether he will be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand ? 32 Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends an ambassador, and desires conditions of peace. 33 So likewise, whosoever he is of you that will not forsake all that he has, he cannot be my disciple. 34 Salt is good: but if the salt has lost his savor, how shall it be seasoned? 35 It is neither fit for the land, nor fit for the dunghill; but men cast it out. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
That pretty powerful stuff. But, one thing I do see, is that when I give a call for prayer at the end of my teaching, people are asking themselves if they can live this life that Jesus is calling us to live. They are counting the cost, because I see it in their facial expressions, it's written all over their faces and that is good.

Nothing good is ever easy, if it was, then everyone would be doing it already. But I can see who the real one's who are sincere about changing their lives, and I can see who the posers are too. Posers are the ones that make all the noise, they are the ones that try to drown me out when I'm talking, they try to disrupt everything so they don't have to hear. They know that they're weakest of all the people here.

They know that they don't have what it takes to live this life, they look strong on the outside, but inside they are as weak as circus lemonade. They know it, because they are afraid to make those goals that would be life changing.

So what do we do about that ?

Well for some life goes on, but for other's who are tired of living a defeated life, the battle is just beginning. Some are being called to step out and be different, they are being called to make a new goals in their lives, they are being called to press on for what is good and right in their lives, but are they going to heed the call, or give in to fear, defeat and failure.

Are they going to raise the bar up, or are they going to keep it low where they feel safe and comfortable. Nothing good ever comes easy, I will keep saying it over and over, nothing good ever comes easy.

There are truth's that we all must accept in our lives if we are going to strive to be better than we are now.

1. It won't come if you don't try.
2. It won't come if you stay where you feel safe.
3. It won't come if you are afraid to step out into the unknown in your life.

So what will you do ?

Are you willing to do what it takes to move your life ahead, or will you settle for mediocrity ?