Best laid plans

Last week’s episode of Puppet Time with Pastor was recorded “on location” in my basement at my messy workbench. The fact is, cleaning and organizing that area of our basement is one of those things that I mean to get to, but never take the time to finish. There will be attempts to perfect my organizational system, but then I get sidetracked with something or get so bored with cleaning things up that I tell myself, “I’ll finish it later,” but never do. Instead, the workbench once again becomes a catch-all and a source of frustration when looking for a particular tool that I know is there somewhere. When all is said and done, the real issue is that it is not a big enough goal of mine that I have to accomplish lest I feel unfulfilled.

Do you have any unfulfilled goals that you contemplate, but, when all is said and done, do not complete because other things become more important? Life is like that. When we are young, we may think about being a teacher, a firefighter, a professional baseball player, a veterinarian, etc., but as we grow older, we learn more about our likes and dislikes, as well as our talents and abilities. And, if we get married and have children, we learn about how there are times when for the common good of the family certain personal goals must take second place to family goals. As followers of Jesus, we know the importance of asking Him for guidance ad direction, praying the prayer, “Lord, what is Your will for me in this situation?” Or, to put it another way, “Lord, make sure my priorities in life are in line with Your priorities for me.” And as that prayer is answered, we may find that certain goals we have are no longer that important, while certain things we never thought of doing suddenly become important to us.

Our verse for the week gives us a wonderful attitude to emulate. St. Paul’s words in Acts 20:24 – “My only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.”