Psychologists have a term to describe people who are caught up in the Rat Race. The term is obsessive-compulsive. Such people may think they are doing all right in life because they get so much accomplished. But in reality they may be stressed out, critical, and driven by all the things they “ought” to do. They aren’t satisfied with their own performance or that of others. Rarely can they accomplish enough. This mindset leaves them with unfinished projects—partially read books, half-completed tasks—that have gotten set aside. Something else came up that seems a higher priority. The resulting frustration and emotional strain often cause them to crash and take others with them on the way down.
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Take the following quiz to see how your priorities stand. Answer “yes” or “no.”
1. Sometimes little things bother me so much I can’t concentrate on more important things.
2. I only read my Bible in times of crisis.
3. I don’t think prayer has as much power as people say it does.
4. My first priority is earning a living for my family.
5. Church is a good place for my children to get involved, but not for me.
6. I have no need to tell the people closest to me that I love and appreciate them because they already know it.
7. I haven’t sat down with my children this month to tell them how special they are to me.
8. There has been a person who has touched me deeply in the last year, to whom I failed to write a note of encouragement.
9. I will probably have regrets on my deathbed that I didn’t spend more time with my family.
10. I have left a trail of unfinished projects over the last year.
11. I start an exercise or a diet but soon lose interest.
12. I don’t need to tune up my car today; the car’s running just fine.
Have you ever been so busy, so excited about where you’re going, and so consumed with what is on your plate at that moment in time, that you forgot about the destination? Sometimes we are running our own race and the littlest things of life can throw us off stride if we are not focusing on the finish line. Therefore, what every child of God needs, in order to best facilitate their race, is a life map.
We can find three kinds of people: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen and those who have no idea at all what’s happening. The last two types are very frustrating lifestyles. But when a person has a life map, frustration is reduced, James wrote concerning the double-minded man, “That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does” (James 1:7). Divided loyalty and divided focus produce frustration. So what are the basics to finding your life map? I believe there are four steps.
Finding Your Life Map
1. Spend time alone with God. One reason why we find ourselves living life without direction is our busyness. “I’m too busy to stop, too busy to plan … too busy to even read my Bible.” You’re on a plane with no navigator, making record time, but you have no idea where you’re going. We are told, “ ‘Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth’ ” (Psalm 46:10). We have to stop and listen; that may mean turning off the television or computer. You may have to go for a long walk. I do not know what the answer will be for you, but I know it must include time with God or you will attempt to formulate this life map under your own power.
2. Identify and understand your giftedness. In Romans 12:6 we learn that, “we have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith.” Notice who gives you these gifts—God. We don’t get to choose, we are not given a menu at the time of our salvation. And genuine fulfillment comes when we can both identify and understand how God has made us. He would never gift you in one way and then lead your life in a totally different direction where you would ignore your giftedness.
When you get to heaven, God is not going to ask you, “Why weren’t you more like Billy Graham?” He’s not going to say, “I wished you had been a better parent like James Dobson.” And He won’t even analyze, “Why weren’t you a greater leader like Moses or Joshua?” He will want to know why you weren’t more like He created you to be, and for which you had the potential to be. But instead you got sidetracked into the Rat Race through apathy, fear, distractions, or any of the number of other of life’s detours.
3. Review your past history and experiences. Do you realize that God will use your circumstance and your problem to help others who are struggling with the same pain? Speaking of God, Paul writes 2 Corinthians 1:4, “[He] comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.” Even as you read this passage, God probably brought to mind something in your past that He allowed to happen, so that you could use it to help others. Don’t be afraid of your past; use it for God’s glory.
4. Determine your priorities. You will not have time for everything. You think you do, but you don’t. So there will be a definite need to prioritize if you ever plan to discover your life map. You do this by asking yourself, “What should I be doing that is going to have eternal implications?” Jesus gives us the answer in Matthew 6:20, “But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy.”
Apart from Almighty God and His redemptive plan, there are only two things that are going to last forever—God’s Word and God’s people. I must pour myself into learning and growing in my Bible understanding. I must recognize that how I spend my time now may determine where my family, friends, and associates will be spending their eternity. Regardless of your profession, your educational goals, the place where you choose to live, if you are a child of God, your life map will include the Bible and people.
My personal life map is shaped by three distinct desires. First, I desire to be a man of God and to serve Him with a joy and enthusiasm that is contagious to the people around me. Second, I want to raise a godly family, in which Nancy, my wife, feels love and security, and our kids and grandkids sense support and encouragement. Lastly, I choose to invest my life in the ministry. There are many vocations that I have admired and studied, but I’ll never forget what my brother-in-law said to me over two decades ago, “Glen, if God wants you in the ministry and you don’t, you’ll be miserable.” Jack, you were right. So at the end of my life, when I stand before the Lord of Lords, I too will be able to say, ‘I was not disobedient to the vision You gave me.”
O.K. You’re convinced. You’ve decided that you need a life map, but you also may be thinking, I’ve already lived a goodly portion of my life without one. Isn’t it too late now to change? How do I go about it even if I want to? I feel so trapped where I am. I’ve already blown it, haven’t I? Not so! With God all things are possible. He’s just been waiting for you to recognize the need to factor Him into your life. He’s eagerly awaiting your step of turning your life over to Him, and letting His Spirit direct you.
On the journey with you,
Pastor Glen
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