A guiding thought for me has always been, “Where do I want to go?”Before I read my Bible or go to my study to prepare a message, I ask the Lord, “Where do you want me to go?” I ask of the text from the Bible, “Where is this going?” When I read a book, do I look for where the author is wanting to take my thoughts? It’s the same with a movie or television show. Alert defensive players are watching the quarterback to know where that pass is going to intercept, block, or make a tackle.

The Lord is taking us on a journey. This year we are calling it “Journey 21.” Along the way we are going to “Celebrate His love by persuading people to become passionate followers of Christ!” Our destination of course is heaven. While we live in this life though, our destination of influence is our homes, neighborhoods, communities, work and marketplace.

Where do you want to go in life this year? Where do you want to take your family? Where do you want to be at the end of the year-on March 31, June 30, September 30, and December 31 of 2021?

If I’m writing, driving, planning, or playing a round of golf, where do I want to end up? My first 10k I ran the route several times so I would know the course and where the finish line was at. Where was it possible that runners would be crowded together? I had a coach who walked me through. The same as when I golf; knowing the course helps me play against the course better.

Where are you going in life? Where do you want to end up? What destination are you guiding your family towards? As a Christian, I want my family, friends, congregation, and neighbors to be with Christ in eternity. What am I doing to show them the way? How I am influencing them for Christ? These are not esoteric questions.

It’s the little seemingly unimportant tasks we do everyday that add up to a life of influence lived for the glory of God. Routines help me with that. I don’t even have to think about them. They are habits engrained like muscle memory for a runner or golfer. I do them everyday without thought. Things like my personal worship time before the Lord, planning to have evening dinner with my family at a real table, or reviewing my plan for the week every evening before going to bed.

These routine tasks have a huge influence on the destination of your marriage, family, dreams, and vocation. Let me close today with a poem I read in college that has been a part of my thought life for 45 years. I hope you enjoy it. If you have questions or some thoughts, please send me an email or reply to this post. If you know someone it would be helpful to, please share.

“I simply argue that the cross be raised again, at the centre of the marketplace as well as on the steeple of the church. I am recovering the claim that Jesus was not crucified in a cathedral between two candles but on a cross between two thieves; on a town garbage heap; at a crossroads so cosmopolitan that they had to write His title in Hebrew, and in Latin and in Greek … and at the kind of place where cynics talk smut, and thieves curse, and soldiers gamble. Because that is where He died, and that is what He died about. And that is where Christ’s own ought to be, and that is what church people ought to be about.” – George MacLeod

Peace!