What is the highest goal you have for your life? Imagine, if you can, what
the greatest thing you wish to achieve could be. I challenge you to think with
the highest optimism and creativity imaginable, to set your life’s goal before
yourself. What is it that you desire to achieve? What greatness can you reach
in the span of your life?
OK, have you done it? Good. Well, I am writing this to inform you that the
idea you have for the highest goal in your life probably isn’t high enough.
Whatever grand design you were able to conjure in your mind likely falls short
of the grandeur that could be yours. I know this for at least two
reasons:
1. You have not yet been where you are going to be. You have not yet seen
what you are going to see. You are not yet who you were destined to be. This
is true of all people everywhere. You just have no idea of what your
capabilities are because you still have so much to explore and experience.
Every new opportunity and discovery you make will cause you to rethink and
reevaluate the goals that you have made.
2. The second reason is true for God’s children: “No eye has seen, nor ear
has heard, nor has the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those
who love him.”
That is quite a bold statement. It is written in Paul’s first letter to the
Corinthians. It’s basically stating that not even the loftiest and most
creative thinker in all the world can even imagine the things that God
has planned for those who love him. Paul is actually writing this in reference
to the kings and rulers of the time. He is saying that they had no idea what
God was actually doing on behalf of the people he loved. They couldn’t even
have imagined it. The truth is that even today, no one can imagine just what it
is God has planned for us, because these things are hidden until God reveals
them.
This brings me to my point: What if the kings and rulers of the world could
get a glimpse of what God is planning? What if they could make decisions based
on God’s ideas, plans that would truly revolutionize this world? What if that
is exactly what God is all about and has been about all along?
This brings me to part of my story.
When I was in high school, back in the ’90’s, I wasn’t what you would call an
outstanding student. I got by, I did what I needed to do. My plans for my life
weren’t exactly what you would have called inspirational. I didn’t have any
plans. I really think at the time, I figured I would end up pumping gas or
manning a cash register at a convenience store. Those were the high and lofty
goals I had for my life. You could’ve called me a ‘nobody’ and you would’ve
been right.
Everything changed when I was recruited into the U.S. Marine Corps. It
wasn’t a decision that anyone would have expected me to make. Not even myself,
I really wasn’t the type to go into the Marine Corps, not stereotypically. But
I did, and even though it didn’t strike me as significant at the time, things
happened that I couldn’t have imagined.
First, I came to faith in Jesus Christ. I didn’t see that one coming. So,
now I was a Christian. This is a decision of such weight and significance I
can’t rightly give it credibility with words, but in the eyes of your typical
American teenager, it isn’t that significant. It was a quiet decision made by a
young man who really didn’t have a great past, and probably didn’t have a great
future. But isn’t that the lie?
I did not know it, but not only was I to be recruited into the Marine Corps,
I was to be recruited into the Executive Helicopter Squadron of the President of
the United States of America, HMX-1. Say what? Now, I wasn’t an overachiever,
but I went in the course of a couple years from being a potential gas-station
attendant to someone who had the authority to stand in the presence of the
President of the U.S.A.
I traveled everywhere with George W. Bush for several years. I was trusted
and entrusted with a great responsibility. How did that happen? I didn’t make
it happen. It was placed into my lap. By who? God? That’s a little absurd,
don’t you think? Why would God do a thing like that? However, as I continue in
life and in the faith, I am beginning to see that it was God’s plan all along.
In fact, I can say it with great assurance that it is what God wanted to do with
my life. That was my first taste of God’s imaginations.
So, you may ask, how do I know with great assurance that it was God’s plan to
get me into the favor of the office of the President of the United States? Like
I said, it has always been God’s plan. Just read the Bible. Let me give you a
few examples:
Joseph, a dreaming little boy ends up being second in
command under the Pharoah of Egypt.
Moses, who shouldn’t have lived more than a day, ends up in
Pharoah’s courts and eventually destroys Pharoah’s army.
David, a little shepherd boy, actually becomes the King.
Elijah, an obscure nobody, confronts King Ahab and defeats
his plans.
Daniel, an exile, is promoted to the highest position before
the Kings of Babylon and Medeo-Persia.
Peter, a fisherman, becomes the leader of Jesus’ movement
among the Jewish people and testifies before the rulers of his people.
Paul, a religious fanatic and murderer, is eventually sent
to Rome to appear before Caesar.
So, after considering these stories and my own story, I am beginning to come
to an understanding. It is and always has been God’s plan to put his children
in positions to influence the most influential people of their times. If we
believe this and are willing to follow God in it, I am certain that we will see
it come to pass.
So, if you happen to be a nobody, with no reputation, no references and no
goals for your future, stop and consider this: If you can stand before God as
his child, it is a small thing to stand before presidents and kings on this
earth. Maybe it is time you allow your dreams and imaginations to be informed
by the imaginations of God. Maybe it is time for wonderful things to happen in
your life. Why not ask God what they are? He will likely give you an answer
that will blow your mind.
