I'm Not Where I Used To Be...

We cannot become what we need to be by remaining where we are.

I like this prayer from the African-American church I found in a book by Lovett Weems, Jr called Church Leadership: Vision, Team, Culture, & Integrity. It says "Lord, we're not what we want to be, we're not what we need to be, we're not what we are going to be, but thank God Almighty, we're not what we used to be!"

As Christians we are always in the process of changing and growing...at least we should be. Weems puts it this way. "The way things are in the world at any moment is never synonymous with God's will. There is always a 'not yet' quality and an incompleteness about things as they are. God is always pulling us into the future with a call for an order far different from the current state of things.' (p. 38)

That is why recapturing and renewing vision is so important.

I have a great ministry leader for our golf ministry. He has led several meetings for our golf leadership team and he begins everyone by reminding us of the mission of our church and of the golf ministry specifically. He understands that we are always striving to fulfill it. Just because we had a great year in golf last year doesn't mean we have arrived at fulfilling our purpose with it yet. We are in that 'not yet' period of making progress towards that goal.

It is easy to get comfortable in where we are. The longer we stay in a place in life the harder it is to leave it. Where are you? Are you where you need to be? If not, what are you doing to change it?