Monthly Archives: August 2011

Inspiration or Perspiration

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“If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done. Keep on sowing your seed, for you never know which will grow—perhaps it all will.”1

I’m a writer, but if I always waited for inspiration to motivate me to write, I wouldn’t get much written because there are lots of other things I enjoy doing. Not always, but as a general rule, writing for me is only about five percent inspiration. The rest is 25 percent discipline and 70 percent perspiration or hard work. I think every writer, from time to time, struggles with a writer’s block, but you have to keep on writing when it’s your work.

When I thought about writing a book some years ago, it seemed like a daunting task, but when a friend suggested that I think of writing just one page at a time, I thought to myself, yeah, I can handle that.

When people ask me if I love writing, I usually answer by saying, “I love having written.” I do like to communicate ideas, however, and writing is one way to do that. Teaching in person is a lot more fun for me, but writing has proven to be more effective especially with today’s electronic means of communication.

Life’s like this. Obviously not everybody is called to write, but we are all called to do that which we are equipped to do. There’s a company where I live that is called Instant Grassification. It’s a clever name for installing instant lawns. But for achieving something worthwhile in life means having a clearly defined life purpose and then discipline, hard work, and determination to hang in for the long haul—and to “keep on sowing our seed,” and never giving up. There is no such thing as instant success.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me to know what my God-given life purpose is and, with your help, to keep on keeping on so that when I get to the end of life’s journey I will hear your welcoming words, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Lord.’ Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Ecclesiastes 11:4, 6 (TLB)(NLT).

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Insignificant Goals

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“Cling tightly to your faith in Christ, and always keep your conscience clear. For some people have deliberately violated their consciences; as a result, their faith has been shipwrecked.”1

“Some years ago a headline told of three hundred whales that suddenly died. The whales were pursuing sardines and found themselves marooned in a bay. Frederick Harris commented, ‘The small fish lured the sea giants to their death. They came to their violent demise by chasing small ends, by prostituting vast powers for insignificant goals.’”2

Over the years I’ve asked numerous people in many groups how many of them believe that God has a purpose for their life. Almost all hands raise in agreement. But when I ask what their God-given life-purpose is, very few have any idea. I get lots of vague generalities, but very few have a clearly defined life-purpose.

If we don’t know specifically where we are headed in life, instead of making life happen, we allow life as it happens to make us. That is, instead of directing our life, we are directed by life’s circumstances. We become like a rudderless ship with no real sense of direction, wasting our God-given potential on pursuing happiness, riches, or insignificant goals. Unless we know where we are headed, there is a danger that we, like the whales, may make shipwreck of our faith or even of our life.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, thank you that you do have a God-given life-purpose for my life. Please help me to discover what it is and, with your help, do all in my power to achieve that purpose. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. 1 Timothy 1:19 (NLT).

2. John C. Maxwell, Developing the Leader Within You, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publications, 1993), p. 31.

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On the Light Side

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“No one lights a lamp and hides it! Instead, he puts it on a lamp stand to give light to all who enter the room.”1

Lieutenant John Eisenhower, son of the late General Dwight Eisenhower, was a member of his father’s staff during Word War II. On one occasion General Eisenhower gave his son a message to deliver to a colonel on the front line.

The young lieutenant said to the colonel, “My dad says to watch your right flank.” The puzzled officer replied, “Really? And what does your mommy say?”

Obviously the colonel didn’t know who young Eisenhower was. Eisenhower didn’t make himself known. He hid his light under a bushel as it were.

While we don’t want to drop names or ride on somebody else’s coattails, nor make any kind of an impact in our circle of influence, it is important that we are known for who we are—not by rank or title—but by our fruit.

That is, do people know that I’m a Christian—do they “see” Jesus in me—or do I just melt into the surrounding group in which I find myself, and thereby hide my light under a bushel?

No matter how small our light is, “All the darkness in the world cannot put out the light of one small candle.”

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, help me to be as Jesus to someone today. Let them see your light shining through me. And in the words of the hymn writer, ‘May your beauty rest upon me, As I seek the lost to win, And may they forget the channel, Seeing only Him [you].’ Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus name, amen.”

1. Luke 11:33 (TLB) (NLT).

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