“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...

“God does big things with small deeds.”

A thought by Max Lucado (2011-05-02) from his book, Cure for the Common Life (p. 115). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) I don’t know how you feel about what you are doing and how it can make a difference. You may feel that it is so small and not even worth the effort. Max says, “Begin. Just begin! What seems small to you might be huge to someone else. Just ask Bohn Fawkes. During World War II, he piloted a B-17. On one mission he sustained flak from Nazi antiaircraft guns. Even though his gas tanks were hit, the plane did not explode, and Fawkes was able to land the plane. “On the morning following the raid, Fawkes asked his crew chief for the German shell. He wanted to keep a souvenir of his incredible good fortune. The crew chief explained that not just one but eleven shells had been found in the gas tanks, none of which had exploded. “Technicians opened the missiles and found them void of explosive cha...

"Lie 2: The more you worry about it, the better your odds of avoiding it."

A thought by Louie Giglio in his book, Winning the War on Worry (p. 5). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) Here is another lie that the Enemy uses with us. And Louie says, "This is a tricky lie. Yes, we often have cause for concern and preparation. But the Enemy wants you to believe that if you worry or fret over a certain outcome long enough, you can keep something bad from happening." But this is so important to realize. He says, "The reality is worrying has never once prevented something negative from happening. Planning might. Prayer has. But worry never will." He continues, "The Enemy tells you that by worrying about a situation (or every situation) you can make your tomorrow better. Really, worry just robs you of today. Jesus implored us: 'I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body mor...

Just Continue That Thought...

Search This Blog