How to Turn the World Right-Side Up
Tom Shrader examines Paul's life from Philippians 3:12-14, showing how believers can move from frustrated busyness to purposeful living. He contrasts goal-oriented living with purpose-driven living, emphasizing that true spiritual impact comes from finding your God-given passion and focusing everything around it rather than scattering energy across random activities.
“You don't need to go to a foreign country to be a missionary. You can be a missionary right where you are today.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: How to Turn the World Right-Side Up
Recorded: July 18, 1996
Duration: 40 min
Themes: purpose, passion, focus, transformation, courage, faith, calling, discipleship, feeling scattered, lacking direction, new believer, struggling with priorities, seeking purpose, overwhelmed with busyness, young adult, pastor
Scripture: Philippians 3:12-14, Acts 17, Isaiah 6, John 14
Theological Themes: sanctification, spiritual maturity, holy spirit, pneumatology, christian living, discipleship formation, spiritual transformation, biblical calling
Full Transcript
Today, we're going to take two weeks, a special two weeks, and it flows out of last week's discussion on the principle of faith. You can pick up the tape at the door, feel free to take them with you. We're talking about faith not so much in a body of belief, and not so much in what we might identify as saving faith. We're talking about faith from the perspective of what it means to know Christ and what that means to your life.
The point that we were making last week was that in the life of Thomas—we could have taken not just Thomas, but really all 12 of the remaining apostles—so we're taking 11 plus Paul. If you look at those 12 guys, you have 12 guys who by and large, maybe with the exception of Paul, certainly the original 11 here, who are sniveling wimps, afraid of their shadows. In a matter of months they are transformed so much that all 11 of them, 10 of them are martyred, the exception being John. Tradition says that John was actually boiled in oil before he was exiled to Patmos. So you see these guys who are afraid of everything, and all of a sudden you see them literally afraid of nothing. It's a marvelous testimony.
I told the group yesterday, and I remind you as well, in his book *Loving God*, Chuck Colson has one chapter—the whole book is obviously worth reading—but there's one chapter called "Watergate and the Resurrection." That chapter alone, to me, was one of the most profound. It's not necessarily theological in its approach, but it deals with Watergate and the Resurrection, and he says, "I can prove to you the Resurrection by looking at Watergate." It's a marvelous chapter. It's based on the transformation in these guys' lives.
A Nation in Need of Transformation
In the middle of this, my call is: you and I live in a nation that desperately needs to see men and women who are energized the way these people were. My favorite guy in all of Scripture is Paul, and I have a tendency to look at Paul and sometimes go, "Wow, what an incredible guy," to the extent that I've so removed him from the human race. I look at him as some sort of an icon, rather than understand this is a guy.
I don't know who your hero or heroes are, either in Scripture or in the Christian faith, but let me help you with this. No matter who they are—male, female, what century—the same Holy Spirit that empowered and indwelt them is the same Holy Spirit that is available to you. These guys did supernatural things, not because they were supernatural, but because the Spirit that indwelt them was supernatural.
You live in a very interesting time. Let me give you the latest statistics I've seen. If you poll the American public, about 40%—and you'll get some argument on this number, it may be 37, it may be 50, it doesn't matter—about 40% in the last poll say they're born again. If you say to them, "Do you believe in the virgin birth, do you believe in the infallibility of Scripture, do you believe Christ rose from the dead, do you believe He died an atoning death for others?" Now, to me, that's not radical stuff. If you ask that, get this now, the number of people in the country that embrace that, you're at 8%. If you add the caveat, "Do those beliefs affect the way you live?" In your Christian nation, the number is now at 2%.
You don't need to go to a foreign country to be a missionary. You can be a missionary right where you are today. I guarantee you, obviously in this room I'll guarantee you there's people, but I'll guarantee you in the office today, at the club, when you hit the stairmaster, when you're on the golf course, wherever you are, you are a minority. But not an impotent minority. You are a minority that's been filled with and indwelt by the Holy Spirit. I think our great opportunity is to be part of turning the world right side up.
Models from Scripture
You want some models for this? Here we go. In the book of Acts, in the 17th chapter, there's a time where Paul and Silas are coming to Thessalonica and their enemies offer us a pretty interesting insight. This is from the Living Bible, so it's a paraphrase, but you'll get the drift of what they're saying. They look at Paul and here's what they say: "Paul and Silas have turned the rest of the world upside down and now they're here."
They say this, not in a complimentary fashion, but they say this out of desperation. This is what we want people to say when you walk into the room. "Mary Beth has turned the world upside down and now she's here." "Phil has touched lives all over the place and now he's here." How does he do this?
We're going to give you, I hope, some helpful insights here by going to Paul's own writings. He becomes very autobiographical in this section from the book of Philippians, the third chapter, verses 12 through 14. Here's what he says:
"Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."
Practical Truths for Life
Now I want to suggest to you that I think you can get some very practical—obviously you can get some very heavy theological truths there—but you can get heavy theological truths that practically apply to you that will be very helpful to you as God turns the world right side up through you. So let's look at them. There's six or seven of them.
Here's the first one. Paul says, "I have not already obtained all this." I think it's important to understand that life is a never-ending process of learning. I'm on the verge—I'm not sure—I'm contemplating going back to school to take a class. I had to do some writing not long ago and I realized that the only thing that I do worse than speak...
How to Turn the World Right-Side Up - Part 1
Part 2 of 6
I can't write at all. I don't write letters and now I know why. So I'm thinking about going back to take this creative writing course. I thought it would be good for me to describe a tree or whatever they do.
So I went to get the catalog and on the front of it, here's what it said: adult continuing education. And I laughed when I saw it because it's redundant. Education by definition is continual. I never arrive. I'm always in process.
The Mind Must Remain Fertile and Alert
That's why your mind has to be absolutely fertile and alert, always taking in information. My favorite story is Howie Hendricks going to his friend's 80th birthday party. Every time Howie sees this gal, she asks, "What are you reading? What are they debating? What are they talking about at the seminary?"
Howie comes in and she said, "What are you reading?" He said, "No, not tonight, happy birthday to you, you're 80." A couple years later she dies and Howie goes to visit the family. The daughter's there and Howie said, "You know, your mother was always an inspiration to me. She was always energetic. She was always alive with thought. Even as her body deteriorated, her mind was fertile."
The daughter said, "Come on upstairs, let me show you what she was doing when she died." There on her desk was the final draft of this 83-year-old lady's 10-year plan. That's the way to think, always fertile.
The Myth of Retirement
One of those magnificent myths is that somehow you and I work to a certain point and then we're done, and when we retire, everything shuts down. That is not true. And it's not biblical. I'm continually learning, continually growing, continually taking in information, always in process, never arriving, but always in the journey.
You have a subject that you can study endlessly when you look at the Scripture itself. We did John 14 in church Sunday. "John 14, don't let your hearts be troubled. Believe in the Father, believe in me. I go to prepare a mansion for you..."
Well, I'm looking around thinking, all these people have heard this a thousand times. I've heard this a thousand times. So I'm in my cold, I'm in my delirium state Saturday. So I sleep, read, sleep, read, sleep, read, and I read it again, and I read it again, and there's a phrase that absolutely jumps off the page at me: "I go to prepare a mansion for you."
A Place Prepared Specifically for You
See the tendency there is to see Him as the architect preparing, but He goes to prepare a place for you. And when I say for you, I don't just mean there's a place there for you. I mean, have you ever had the experience you walk into somebody's house, you're standing in their living room and you say, "This house is yours. This is you. If I saw a hundred photographs of living rooms, I could pick this one out because this is you."
When you walk into my kids' room, you go, "This is their room." I believe, although I can't prove it, but I think that's what this is designed. I'm going to prepare a place there where you walk in and there it is. It's for you. If you get in this way, you're going to spend eternity with your books, your pictures. It's for you, man.
I think you can read this scripture over and over and over again and you continue to see these things. Like that theological truth, you're continually learning.
Paul's Accurate View of Himself
Paul says that. Here's the second thing he says. He said, "I haven't already been made perfect." Paul has an accurate view of himself. I'm not already mature.
Here's the key. You can get an accurate view very simply. This is Isaiah 6. Isaiah says, "I see God, woe to me for I'm undone." Here's how you get an accurate view. It's not looking in the mirror. You get an accurate view of yourself by looking at God.
The Problem with Horizontal Comparisons
As long as you look horizontally like this, you're looking around, you're always going to have a distorted view of who you are and you're always going to come out better than you really are. If you go down to the prison, you're going to talk to this guy and he's done 500 armed robberies. So now he's serving 90 days and you're talking to this guy and he goes, "Hey, don't give me this stuff. There's nothing wrong with me. I never killed anybody like that guy over there."
So you go talk to that guy over there and he said, "Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa, don't dump the guilt on me. Those are the child molesters over there. The serious ones." And you go talk to them and he's going to say, "Wait a minute, I never bilked billions out of little old ladies."
So as you're sitting in the prison or you're sitting in the boardroom or you're sitting at the club, everybody's going, "I'm not such a bad person. Look at these guys. I never blew up a jetliner." As long as you're looking this way, you're never going to see who you are.
The Vertical View Changes Everything
You will see exactly who you are the minute you look that way. The minute you look up, you're going to say what Isaiah said, "Woe to me for I'm undone. Woe to me for I'm ruined. I'm a sinful person who's helpless and hopeless. I need a way out." And then Isaiah experiences atonement and freedom of guilt.
You need an accurate view of who you are, who you are in Christ and who you are as a person, your strengths and your weaknesses. You have to be honest about this.
Being Honest About Our Gifts
We have a ton of people who are around who think they have the gift of teaching. And rather than debate with them, here's what I think you do. Give them a room and give them 30 people. And in a month when they have four people, you say to them, "You have not the gift of teaching, but the gift of disbursement. Nobody wants to hear you. Either what you're saying is no good or the way you're saying it is no good, but you don't have the gift of teaching."
That doesn't mean you're a drone. It means that's a gift you don't have. This is good news because now we can identify the ones you do have. And here's what you have to do. You have to look at yourself and say, "Here's my strengths and here's my weaknesses and I'm going to spend my life working..."
in the areas where I'm strong and gifted. I'm not going to waste my life spending hours trying to get better at something I'll never be good at. When I move over here and I'm in my gifted area, you know what you're going to experience? Satisfaction and fruit and happiness and joy because God's just going to dump all this stuff right through you because you're where He's gifted you to be.
It moves all together because He says, after I have all this, I press on to take hold for that of which Christ Jesus took hold of me. There is that bumper sticker and I'm sorry to keep beating this bumper sticker up, but it's driving me nuts. I saw it yet again yesterday about practice random acts of kindness and senseless acts of goodness. I cannot believe a person is so desperate that they are at the point where their life is random and meaningless and they want to tell others about it. That's what that bumper sticker says. It's random.
See, that isn't even true. There has to be a reason. Why would you be good? Why would I do something good and kind? I want to know that answer. Because it can't just be random and senseless. If it is, I wouldn't do anything. I mean, if there's no reason to it, I would either do one of two things. I would roll out with Hemingway and blow my brains out or I'd suck all the fun I could, fun in a negative way, meaning booze and women.
It's the old deal about the guy who inherits a million dollars and it's all gone. He said, what did you do with it? And he said, well, 90% of it I spent on booze and women and gambling. And he said the other 10% I wasted. That's not the life that we're talking about here. We're talking about a life that has purpose and meaning. That's exactly what Paul says right here. My life has purpose and has meaning and has direction. When I operate in that area, there's going to be in my life a sense of joy and happiness.
The Reality of Spiritual Frustration
I made a statement in a lesson not long ago and someone challenged me. I said, I don't know anybody that's happy. You know, no one's happy. This guy came afterwards and he said, I don't believe that. And I said to him, name 10 people you know that are happy. Go ahead. Name them. Name 10 people that are happy. We stood there. I don't know any of these people.
I said, come on. I'm going to write them down. I want to get to 10. We're at 7. And I said, I got to go. I mean, there must be three more. Here's what's interesting. He named seven people he knew were happy. Fascinating to me. His own name wasn't on the list. Wouldn't you at least start and say, well, I'm happy?
I'm convinced that most of us are really frustrated spiritually. Really hurting. Busy as little beavers. Packing out a room on Thursday morning. And yet if you say, are you fulfilled spiritually? Are you happy with where you are spiritually? Is there a frustration? No. I'm frustrated. And I'm busting my pick.
I believe when you commit yourself to the idea that God has a purpose in your life, I believe for many of you, your workload is going to shrink, not expand.
The Devil's Favorite Tool
One of my favorite things. It's called the devil's garage sale. The story is told that the devil decided to have a garage sale, taking out all his finest tools of deception and death. He priced each one and placed them in the driveway. They were each marked according to their value. There was hatred and envy and jealousy, all marked for sale. There was deceit and lust and lying and pride, all with appropriate price tags.
But sent over by itself, totally removed from the other instruments, was an unassuming, plain-looking tool. It was quite worn. In fact, it was the most worn of all the tools, and yet it carried the highest price tag. A customer sauntered up and began to browse through the tools. He picked this tool up, looked it over, and casually said to the devil, say, what's the name of that tool?
With a shrewd sneer, the devil boldly replied, ah, my favorite tool. I know it well. It's the tool called discouragement. Is that high-priced negotiable, the customer asked? Absolutely not. That tool is my most powerful tool, more powerful than any other I have. When I use the tool of discouragement on a person's heart, I can pry open that person's heart and then use all my other tools. It's the key tool, my most strategic tool, and therefore it comes at a very high price.
When you are frustrated and you are discouraged, you are vulnerable. That's why Paul says, don't grow weary in doing well. Don't get tired. And that's an odd thing. If you're doing well and you do it, wouldn't you think there'd be a sense there of fulfillment?
The Power of One Thing
We're going to start now to narrow your focus. Remember we're talking about how to turn your world right-side up? Paul says, here's one thing. I do one thing. I do one thing as if. Now we know that Paul does a lot of different things. But what he's saying here is, there's one thing that supersedes everything else. I preach Christ and Christ crucified.
Well, we know he talks about other things than that. We know he wrote Philippians and Ephesians and he talked about parenting and marriage and work relationship. But what he's saying is, it's all in the context of Christ crucified. There's one thing. It's the law of impact.
There's a word that I don't like that we use every once in a while. I don't like the word at all. It's called balance. Are you balanced? Do you know anyone who's accomplished anything in life, in a large measure, who's balanced? In any field. Let's stay on the Apostle Paul. If I gave you 50 words, singular words, to describe Paul, does the word balance come to mind?
Do you think Mozart, as you study his life, was Mozart balanced? Is Vince Lombardi balanced? Gates? I don't think there is a balance. I think in a person's life where things are happening and stuff is going
On, I don't mean in some large way, I mean in a very narrow way. In their life, there is a focus. There is, the word we use in athletics, there is an intensity to that person.
If I say to you, get in your mind a mental image of Mike Singletary. Some of you will go, "Who was Mike Singletary?" but the guys will say, "Okay." And you get this picture. When I say to you, get in your mind a picture of Mike Singletary, you may have in this picture a Bears uniform, but I guarantee you an integral part of this picture in your mind is a helmet, a face mask, and these eyes. Just these eyes, this big these eyes are.
The Power of Intensity
We did a conference not long ago, end of the year football conference, and Mike was there. He was in about the third row. I knew he was going to be there. I had seen the thing ahead of time, the agenda, the roster. When I got to the podium and I started to teach, I looked down and there he is. As I looked down, he looked back at me with those same eyes. I would walk and I would say something, and I know it would be witty and humorous, and he would look with that, and he would periodically go, "Huh," and then right back to this thing.
Well, when it was over, we were standing around talking, and he moved to the back of the room, or I lost track of him, but looked and saw that he was in the back, and his wife was there. We're just talking. She said, "I want you to know Mike really enjoyed that." I said, "Well, I'm going to take your word for it, because there was nothing I can see about it." She said, "What do you mean?" I said, "Well, I mean, it's the eyes." She smiled and she said, "He's intense."
Well, that's why Mike Singletary is a Hall of Famer. He's intense. My call to you is, there has to be in your life something. I believe every person has it. You may have become very successful at masking it, and you, as time has worn on and you've become pragmatic, you've had to bury it deeper and deeper and deeper. But there is something in you that absolutely, when we get to that, it just turns your crank. It's just you. It grasps it.
Finding Your God-Given Passion
That's why we get somebody who's involved in the pro-life movement. Their deal is to save babies. Well, they're hard to deal with, because when they come in, they're wanting to know, "Why aren't we talking about saving babies in here? Don't you care about this?" I do. But here's the problem. These guys over here care only about the prison. "Why aren't we in there in the prison?" These people want to feed the hungry. These people want to know, "Why aren't you teaching the business people?"
Hey, here's the deal. Let me feed your passion and facilitate it the best I can, but it's your passion, man. What did He give you? What did God put in your heart, and you say, "This is bigger than everything else? This is my passion." It's the law of focus-impact.
Now, as Paul is preparing to tell you some very important information, he drops this little bombshell in the middle. He said, "I forget what lies behind." I'm not wasting a bunch of time thinking about what didn't happen to me when I was a kid.
Letting Go of the Past
When I'm in the car at night, and it's between 6 and 9, I'm listening to Dr. Laura. I'm wondering, what kind of people are on hold that want her to beat them up on national radio? What would make a person do this? Why would you call? You know why I think she's so good, is she just says, "Okay, all right, I understand. That's a bad break. Yep, that's not good. No, that's not good. That's not good. But what about tomorrow? What are you going to do now?"
I had a chance to talk to the college kids at Forest Home a couple of weeks ago, and I told them that the only thing that can screw them up is them. I say the same thing to you. I don't know. But if your life is being mired down by something, especially if it's something in your past, the only person that can fix this thing is you.
I am not trying to trivialize real serious issues. We spend thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours and lots of prayer time on our kids, Susan and I, on our kids. I presume that that has a benefit to it. But conversely, if those weren't there, I presume that would be a disadvantage. The problem is this: Whether you get that or not, what are you going to do with your life?
Paul's Confrontation with His Past
I cannot prove it to you biblically, but I believe that there had to be a point in Paul's life where he came face to face with his past. His past was not pretty. I don't know what you've done, but in his past, it includes persecution, jailing and killing Christians. That's bad.
I'm convinced, and again, I can't pull out of Scripture the example here, but I know what happened. It had to happen. When he's going from house to house church in Jerusalem and he's preaching, I know there had to be a time when he's up in front and he's teaching. As he's teaching, there's one lady over to his right. He can't quite get a connection with her. She's looking at him, but you can look and understand that she's distant. Her mind's preoccupied, and like any good speaker, Paul's now enthralled with winning this woman to his case. The more he works, the more you see the distance. Now you even begin to see a little bitterness there.
Finally Paul finishes, and when he says, "Amen," I'm convinced, he goes over and says, "I'm Paul, and who are you?" She says, "I'm the widow Goldberg." "Ah, how long have you been a widow?" She said, "Since you and your hoodlums came through and took my husband and killed him and threw my children in jail." I guarantee you that had to happen.
Here's what I'm sure Paul did. I'm sure he wept. I'm sure he said, "I am sorry." I'm sure he said, "Where are the elders? Elders come and take care of widow Goldberg." Then he left, and he went down the street, not for therapy and counseling, but to preach again. Because he understood, as hideous as that was, that was behind him. Even with the guilt that still is there, and the consequence, because you'll carry that around
forever. Just because you're forgiven doesn't mean the consequences go away. But Paul said this: I've been called by God to do a work, and I'm going to do it in spite of the sin in my past. In fact, in a funny way, maybe even because of the sin in my past, it'll drive me on.
Now you're ready. Now He's going to tell you, here you go. Here's how you turn the world right side up. He says, "I'm straining toward what is ahead." Paul is saying that in his life, there is purpose.
The Difference Between Goals and Purpose
I'm going to take what I've got now—I'm going to be technically accurate, it's ever-shrinking time here. So I've got nine minutes. I think for some of you, if you can hang in for nine minutes, your eyes are going to open, and you're going to have a spiritual V8 moment here.
You're frustrated, you're busy, you're reading, you're doing, you're studying, you're on your Bible computer program, you're doing all the things that God wants you to do, or you think He wants you to do. You're teaching junior high, you're counting money, you're teaching Sunday school, you're doing all these things, and you're unbelievably frustrated, and pretty ineffective.
Here's what I want you to see: the difference between a goal-oriented life and a purpose-oriented life. They're two very important different things. There's a difference between goals and purpose. Goals actually should be in submission to purpose.
Purpose is something that extends beyond your life. It's something that you serve, but you never attain. It's something that defines the rest of your life. Purpose is something that's out there.
Understanding Purpose vs. Goals
Years ago, when I was challenged to do it, I came up with a purpose statement that said to mature in my faith by developing a lifestyle that will result in others coming to Christ and growing in Him. That's a purpose. That's not a goal. I'm never going to get there. That baby, truly, if you'll allow it, that's a journey. That's what a purpose is. A purpose is a journey.
Goals are short-term, measurable things along the way. So let's say my purpose is to mature in my faith. One of the goals might be to read through the Bible in a year. One of the goals might be to take a class at one of the seminaries. One of my goals might be to pray for a half hour a day. As I mature in my faith, it may be that now all those are intellectual. It may be now I need action. So now I say to become involved in a ministry and devoted to it.
The Trap of Goal-Oriented Living
Here's how you're going to look at this. Goal-oriented life looks like this. Here's you in the center, and here are all these goals. Very typically unrelated.
There was a fascinating story last night on Dateline. I don't know if you saw it as part of the pre-Olympic thing with a diver. I don't remember his name. His last name was Donnie, I believe, who won the silver medal and then went into what the experts call post-achievement syndrome. In other words, he got pretty close to what he wanted, but the dog caught the car. That's typical of a goal-oriented life.
On the best sense, churches are filled with goal-oriented people. They're reading this. They've done this. They've hit here. They're over here. And at the end of the year, they are so frustrated, they can spit. Somebody's going to say, "Well, do you have goals?" "I got goals." "Did you achieve your goals?" "I got them all." He's on a hunting expedition, and he's shot every goal he has. But he's frustrated.
The Power of Purpose-Oriented Living
You know why? Look at the difference between a goal-oriented life and a purpose-oriented life. A purpose-oriented life says everything is moving in the same direction. In life, there may be some things that don't fall in breaking 80. That doesn't really fit into my purpose statement. It's still part of my life, and it's still there. But I don't for a second—I mean, for the last four months, I just haven't had time to play golf. There's a reason, because I've focused here. And right now, this supersedes that. It's like making choices. You've got to make choices in life.
You only got 168 hours this week. You cannot do everything. That's why I said at the beginning, if you'll incorporate this into your life, if you'll become a purpose-driven person, if you will be a person who says, "I understand the law of impact, I understand my strengths, and I'm going to stay there," I think your life will get less cluttered, not more cluttered.
The Freedom of Saying No
I'll tell you something else. You're going to feel like somebody lifted 100 pounds off your shoulder, the first time the phone rings and you go, "Hello?" "This is so-and-so." "Yeah, how are you doing?" "Good, thanks." "Say, we know you from the church, and we've seen you at studies, and that would lead us to believe you're serious about your Christian faith." "Right?" "Uh-huh." "Well, Jesus says that whenever we give a cup to the poor, we've done it to Him. Would you agree with that?" "Can't argue with that. It's right there in the Bible." "Well, we've got a new project where we're going to feed the hungry and clothe the naked. Can we count on you to join us in that effort?" "I don't believe so."
"Well, you don't think it's a worthy project?" "I think it's a great project." "You don't think it's something that's worth our time, energy, effort, and money?" "You bet it is." "Then you'll join us in that." "No, I don't think so." "How come?" "It doesn't fit in my scheme. It's not where God's called me."
So now, rather than write a check for $50 here, and $50 there, and $100 there, and $20 over here, where, by the way, it gives you great cleanliness and keeps you on a lot of mailing lists, you have no influence anywhere. Rather than say, "I'll put $500 there." Rather than give 20 minutes here, and a half hour here, and a luncheon there, and a dinner here, you say, "No, I'm going to give my life here." It becomes the law of purpose. And there's great freedom in this. And you'll see great results in this.
The Ultimate Priority
What Paul's saying is this: this is one thing that I do that supersedes everything else. So now we've arrived, and you understand this. Paul's got one last thing to say to you. You've got to be willing to give it everything it takes.
"I press on toward the goal to win a prize for which God called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." My whole life is consumed in this. He starts by this. He brackets what we've talked about, and He brackets it with this same statement in the end: I press on toward this.
A Generational Shift in Priorities
Let me give you a little tip here. It's been a long time. It seemed like every conversation I had five years ago, all you wanted to talk about was stress and burnout. Not a lot of burnout and stress seminars anymore. Some guy that doesn't have a new gig yet, but periodically you'll run into it. But there aren't a lot of them anymore. You know why?
Here's a fact right here: every seven and a half seconds, in other words—bam, 1,001, 1,002, 1,003, 1,004, 1,005, 1,006, 1,007—bam. Between those two "bams," someone in this country turned 50. Every seven and a half seconds, somebody in this country is turning 50.
They're not talking about burnout and stress anymore. What are all the books on the shelves now? How to find meaning, how to find purpose, how to find direction. Because now these people, their bodies are starting to wear out. Now they're getting scoped once a year. Now they're dealing with all sorts of x-rays and CAT scans, because now it's winding down. The body's winding down, and it's like a little warning: coming to the end, coming to the end, coming to the end.
What Really Matters at the End
Go down and spend time with people who are dying. Go down to St. Joe's today, find five people that are dying. Not one of them is going to say, "Do you think Charles and Jerry are going to figure this thing out?" They're not going to say it. You know why? They're not going to be around to see the season.
At the end of your life—you've heard this from me a billion times—I was just with a guy yesterday. This guy's dead; He just hasn't passed away yet. He's got cancer. It's all through Him. It's a matter of weeks.
He's not sitting there talking about deals that He did or quotas He made. He's not sitting there talking about baseball or basketball or golf. All of those things are fine—I'm not criticizing any of those. You know what He's talking about? "In 1933, at 12th Street in Camelback at Madison Baptist Church, I came to the Lord." You know what He's talking about? "For 52 years, she and I have been married. My daughter still lives with me, and she takes care of me, and I don't know how we'd be without it. We've got great friends. In fact, my brother married her sister."
Faith, family, and friends. Faith, family, and friends. Every single time, it's on every tape. I'm getting sick of saying it, and I know you're sick of hearing it. But faith, family, and friends is all that matters. The rest of this stuff is all kind of secondary players.
Finding Your God-Given Passion
Now, here's where it gets aggravating for you. You're going to say, "OK, Tom, tell me what to do." And I'm going to say to you: you're smart people. You're going to have to figure this out on your own. Because I'm not about to try to take you, nor do you want this, to become a miniature me.
I don't want to put a passion in your belly. There's a passion there. There is something there that transcends everything else, and you can find it. How can you find it? You start to ask God to show it to you. What would you do for God if you knew you couldn't fail?
What are the things that when you're doing them, and you're done with them, you're pooped, but it's a good pooped? I taught four times Sunday. In the middle, I had something happen Sunday in the first talk that's never happened to me before. I'm in the middle of it, and I thought I was going down. I didn't think I was going to get through it.
When I got to the end of the fourth one, I was pooped. I got home, and all I wanted to do—I stopped on the way and got a little horchata—and I got home, and all I want to do is finish my horchata and go to bed. That's all I want to do. I was pooped, but it was a good pooped. It was a pooped that said, "I need to get my rest, and I got to get some antibiotics, and I got to get energy so I can go and do this again." Because this is more important than anything else in the world.
Dump Everything Into Your Calling
You have got to find what that is in your life that's like that, and then dump everything you can into it. And when you do, you're going to be pooped with a good pooped. And you're going to be ready to go for the next deal. It's not that the other things aren't important, but this is how God made you, and this is what He's called you to do, and bam, now you go do it.
This is how you turn the world upside down.
The Greatest Obstacle
Now, on the way to do this, there's an obstacle—one gigantic obstacle. It's the one thing that Jesus tells us pretty clearly is the thing that's going to stop you. It's the biggest obstacle that any of us face. And next week, we're going to look at that.
Next week, we'll look at that.
Father, please give us a vision of who You are. Help us understand who we are, and then give us the guts to find our passion and dump our life into it. We ask You to do that in our life. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.
See you next week.