“Direction—not intention—determines our destination.”

A thought by Andy Stanley (2009-03-31) in his book, The Principle of the Path: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be (p. 14). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.

I was almost born in a car. The truth is I was born in a hospital but within 3 weeks we were back on the road. My dad was an evangelist. We would hold services in a church from Wednesday through 2 Sundays and then we would travel to the next church and start again on Wednesday. It was a good life.

Now when I got a little older I was in charge of the map. It was my job to get us to where we were going by the best most direct route. And I was good at it. So I am an experienced map guy.

A couple of months back on a Saturday, Margaret and I wanted to go in New Jersey to Thomas Edison’s home and factory but I couldn’t find my Jersey map. So I broke down and went and got a Garmin GPS. It is great. At least it is if you put the right info in it.

The next day was Sunday and Margaret and I wanted to go to Forefront Church in the City. So I put in the GPS, New York City and then 127 West 23^rd Street and we headed out at 10:00 am for a 11:30 am Gathering at the church. Now the kind lady on the GPS started taking us into Brooklyn. For a while I thought that it might be the most direct route until I realized there was a West 23^rd in Brooklyn and Brooklyn is a borough of New York City and that was where we were headed. So I put in Manhattan instead and headed out. We found 23^rd Street but finally realized the church was on East 23^rd instead of West 23^rd. But we finally made it just on time.

You see our intention was right. Our intention was to go to an exciting church but that didn’t matter if our direction was wrong. The direction was what mattered in getting to our destination and our direction was wrong.

Some of us have great intentions in our life. We intend to live a long life but as a teenager we decided we didn’t want to follow the directions for a healthy life so we gave in to peer pressure and started smoking and now at 50 we find we have lung cancer and we are mad. The same with eating unhealthy things or living a sedentary life style or under great stress and we end up with a heart attack. Our destination is determined by our direction that we have chosen to take not our intentions.

Our intentions may be good but it is the path that we are on that determines our destination.

So where is your direction taking you?

Comments

“There’s a big difference between building a castle and building a kingdom.”

A thought by Bob Goff from his book, Everybody, Always: Becoming Love in a World Full of Setbacks and Difficult People ( p. 41). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Have you ever built a sand castle or maybe a Lego castle? Have you? Bob says, “We actually build castles all the time, out of our jobs and our families and the things we’ve purchased. Sometimes we even make them out of each other. Some of these castles are impressive too. Lots of people come to admire what we’ve built over the course of our lives and tell us what great castles we have. But Jesus told His friends we weren’t supposed to spend our lives building castles. He said He wanted us to build a kingdom, and there’s a big difference between building a castle and building a kingdom.” Bob goes on, “You see, castles have moats to keep creepy people out, but kingdoms have bridges to let everyone in. Castles have dungeons for people who ha...

“When you understand that life is a test, you realize that nothing is insignificant in your life.”

A thought by Rick Warren, (2012-10-23) from his book, The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? (Purpose Driven Life, The) (p. 57). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. To realize that from God’s perspective life is a test goes a long way in determining how you handle your life. It is important to see that in testing your character is both developed and revealed. Rick goes on to say that “even the smallest incident has significance for your character development. Every day is an important day, and every second is a growth opportunity to deepen your character, to demonstrate love, or to depend on God.” So there is a God purpose behind each situation in your life. Even the bad ones are there to strengthen you and develop you. You see those bad situations are really good ones because they are there for your good. I start each day with a reminder that God is good. Not every situation that is going to come in my day is good but because G...

“What areas of my personality, background, and physical appearance am I struggling to accept?”

A thought by Rick Warren, (2012-10-23) from his book, The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? (Purpose Driven Life, The) (p. 35). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. Rick posed this question at the end of his chapter, You Are Not an Accident. In this chapter he deals with the fact that God created you the way you are with a purpose. In other words you are not an accident. I am also reading the Apostle John’s view of Jesus and what He said and did while He was here on earth. In the beginning of Chapter 9 there is a story about a blind man. And the disciples who were with Him asked Him a good question, “Who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind? ” Have you ever asked the same thing about something in you that you don’t like? Like that characteristic is a curse or something. Society has set a standard that is not a standard of God. Remember, He created you and you are not an accident. Je...

Just Continue That Thought...

Search This Blog