Be All You Can Be: A Challenge to Stretch Your God-Given Potential (8 page)

This is the “I bought it” stage. You may have thought it and caught it, but have you bought it? Have you made the decision? That decision requires that you involve yourself in people’s lives.

I remember reading an article in 1972 in
Life
magazine. It was entitled, “One Man’s Life of No Regrets.” It was about a forty-seven-year-old man who had set out at the age of fifteen with 127 specific goals in his life. By the time he was forty-seven, he had reached 105 of his goals. He talked about how he had the rest of his life to reach out and grab the other twenty-two His goals stopped him, and then they sent him. They changed not only his life but the lives of others around him.

If the vision is God-given, it will stop us, it will send us, and it will strengthen us. As Paul stood before King Agrippa, he talked about some of the setbacks that he had had (see Acts 26:19–23). The key is where he says that he has obtained help from God. The goal strengthened him. We receive a visitation from God, and then we pursue our visions for God. He visits us, and as he comes upon us and empowers us and strengthens us, then we begin to fulfill his vision. In 2 Corinthians 11:23–28, Paul writes of many labors and many imprisonments, of being “beaten times without number, often in danger of death.”

Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches.

Now, what helped Paul to come through all those difficulties? It’s very simple. He had a vision. The vision makes the difference. Any problem is a problem when there is no purpose. But no problem is a problem when there is a purpose. How true that is!

When you really have a dream, you aren’t a problem-conscious person. When you see a problem, you also see a dream, and the dream that takes you through the problem.

Paul’s vision stretched him; it helped him become what he would never have become without it. The same holds true for us. We will never reach our potential unless we follow our dreams, unless we fulfill our visions.

When I was in fourth grade, I went to my first high school basketball game. I stood in the balcony, looking down on the basketball court and the guys getting ready to play. They were in their warm-ups, and I’ll never forget the moment all the lights went out and the spotlight came on, aimed at the middle of the floor. A drumroll preceded the booming announcement of each player’s name. The player would then run out under the spotlight to the sound of thunderous applause. Totally entranced, I turned to my brother, Larry, and said, “There’s gonna be a day when they’ll do that for me!” After the game I went home and formally announced my intention to become a basketball player.

I became consumed with being a basketball player. My dad made a cement drive, put up a backboard and rim, got me a Spalding basketball, and I began to play basketball in fourth grade. When I got to fifth grade, I played in the little basketball league.

Sometimes we went to that same high school gym to play intramurals. The first time I walked down on the main floor of that gymnasium, looking all around as only a fifth-grader can, I begin to replay my vision. I saw myself in the starting lineup. I sat down where I’d seen those big high school basketball players sit, and I closed my eyes so I could turn the lights off in the gym and hear the drumroll in my mind; then I ran out in the middle of the floor and just stood there like the other guys had. All the other kids watched me, wondering what in the world was wrong with me. I was simply replaying my dream.

I will never forget the night in my sophomore year when the coach said, “You’re going to start this evening,” and the lights went off. That dream stretched me. During good weather and bad, I was always playing basketball; I was always seeing myself as I could become. That’s what a vision will do for you.

There’s a difference between a dreamer and a person who has a dream. There are thousands and thousands of dreamers, but there are very few people who have dreams—and there’s a world of difference between them. Dreamers talk much but do little. They may hatch up wild plans and ideas, but you never see them happening. Dreamers lack discipline. On the other hand, a person who has a dream talks little but does much. You may not hear all about the dream, but if you watch, you’ll see it happen. This kind of person is driven by the dream.

Let’s look at the fifth thing that happened to Paul. His vision, or his dream, satisfied him. When he stood before King Agrippa, it was with a sense of satisfaction that he said, “I did not prove disobedient to the heavenly vision” (Acts 26:19). He sensed great satisfaction in having been obedient, in having followed through on his dream.

One of the mountains of the Alps that is popular with climbers has a rest house about halfway up. Now, for amateurs, it’s a good day’s climb from the base to the top. If they start out early in the morning, they get to the rest house about lunchtime. The owner of the house has noticed over the years that an interesting phenomenon happens on a regular basis. When the climbers get into the house, where they feel the warmth of the fire and smell the good food cooking, several will always give in to temptation. They’ll say to their companions, “You know, I think I’ll just wait here while you go on to the top. When you come back down, I’ll join you and we’ll go to the base together.”

A glaze of satisfaction comes over them as they sit by the fire or play the piano and sing mountain-climbing songs. Meanwhile, the rest of the group get on their gear and trek on to the top. For the next couple of hours, there’s a spirit of happiness around the fireside; they’re having a good time in the cozy little lodge. But by about three thirty, it starts to get quiet. They begin taking turns at the window, looking at the top of the mountain. They’re silent as they watch their friends reach the goal. The atmosphere in the house has changed from fun to funeral as they realize they settled for second best. Those who paid the price reached the goal.

What happened? The temporary comfort of the shelter caused them to lose sight of their purpose. It can happen to any of us. Don’t we all have little sheltered places in our lives where we can retreat from the climb—and lose sight of our goals?

Who are the happiest people in the world? Are they young people? Are they healthy people? Are they wealthy people? No, not necessarily. The happiest people in the world are those who are living out their dreams. In giving themselves to something bigger than they are, they’re giving themselves the impetus to rise above their problems. If you want to know real happiness, dream a dream that is bigger than you are; find something you can lose your life in. Jesus said if you keep your life you will lose it, and if you lose your life you will keep it (see Luke 9:24). Isn’t there something better than watching
As the World Turns
every afternoon? Isn’t there something better than waiting for a vacation every year? Isn’t there something better than waiting for retirement by just killing time? Isn’t there something better than just settling for average? Average doesn’t look so good when you realize it’s the worst of the best and the best of the worst.

When I counsel people, I find that their number-one problem is that they’ve lost their dreams. They’ve lost their goals; they’ve lost their purpose. When you lose a dream or your purpose in your marriage, you lose your marriage. When you lose your purpose in your job, you lose your job. When you lose your purpose for your health, you die.

Think of the great men and women who continued to pursue their dreams into old age. Think of people life Moses, who at eighty years of age led 3.5 million people out of captivity. Or Caleb, who at eighty-five years of age said, “Give me that mountain.” Or Colonel Sanders, who at seventy years of age discovered “finger lickin’ good” chicken. Or Ray Kroc, who after age seventy introduced a Big Mac to the world. Then there’s Casey Stengel, who at seventy-five became the manager of the Yankees baseball team. And there’s Picasso, still painting at eighty-eight, and George Washington Carver, who at eighty-one became head of the Agriculture Department. There’s Thomas Edison, who at eighty-five invented the mimeograph machine, and John Wesley, who was still traveling on horseback and preaching at age eighty-eight.

Don’t ever be content with having reached a goal; don’t rest on your laurels. History is filled with examples of people who, though they had accomplished great things, lost sight of their vision. When Alexander the Great had a vision, he conquered countries; when he lost it, he couldn’t conquer a liquor bottle. When David had a vision, he conquered Goliath; and when he lost his vision, he couldn’t conquer his own lust. When Samson had a vision, he won many battles; when he lost his vision, he couldn’t win a battle with Delilah. When Solomon had a vision, he was the wisest man in the world; when he lost the dream God had given him, he couldn’t control his own evil passion for foreign women. When Saul had a vision, he could conquer kings; when he lost his vision, he couldn’t conquer his own jealousy. When Noah had a vision, he could build an ark and help keep the human race on track; when he lost his vision, he got drunk. When Elijah had a vision, he could pray down fire from heaven and chop off the heads of false prophets; when he lost the dream, he ran from Jezebel. It’s the dream that keeps us young; it’s the vision that keeps us going.

When I went to Arizona for a convention a couple of years ago, the fellow who was in charge of the convention picked me up at the airport. The conference was going to be at the church where he was the pastor. We got in the car, and we hadn’t left the airport parking lot before he started saying things like, “I’m really not sure why you’re here. I don’t know if you’ve spoken to older people before, but I have heard you before, and you’re enthusiastic. The people that are going to be here are going to be mostly retired, and they’ve worked hard all their lives in churches back East. They’ve come here to settle down and just enjoy their sunset years.” As he talked, I was getting the message that he wanted me to go easy on them, maybe just give the old folks a devotional. His attitude was going against my grain.
This guy doesn’t understand people
, I thought to myself.
People want a cause—they need a goal. If you’re not yet dead, you must be still alive; you want something to live for, whether you’re eighteen or eighty-one
.

So, on our way to the conference that night, I got my pen out and began reworking my whole sermon. The more I listened to this pastor, the more convinced I became that I had to preach what he didn’t want his people to hear. By the time the service had begun, I had developed what I would consider a real motivational message for these old-timers. I got up and shot both barrels of enthusiasm out into that congregation. I preached on the subject, “Why Retire When You Can Reenlist?” I talked about their potential, the experience they had, their wisdom, and the trials they had come through. At the end, I said, “If you’d like to reenlist in your local church and help fulfill a dream and a cause, come forward.” The place was packed that night, and about three-quarters of those retirees came up to say, “Yes, sir, we want to have a cause.” The pastor was wondering what had happened to his saints. It was not his saints that were the problem. They wanted a dream; they wanted a cause. The pastor was the problem. He had lost that dream; he had lost that vision and settled down for second best.

Do you remember the sequence of a successful dream? Let’s go through it one more time, because in this sequence there’s one more point that I want to give you. The first stage is, “I thought it,” followed by, “I caught it,” “I bought it,” “I sought it,” and, “I got it.” But there is still one more step if you’re going to be a great leader. You should move on to step number six, which is, “I taught it.” You should never live out a dream without sharing it with someone else. That’s discipleship. In the Winter 1983 issue of
Leadership
magazine, Terry Muck writes,

According to a survey of
Leadership
readers, communicating vision is one of the most frustrating parts of leading a local church. “It is also a task young pastors feel poorly equipped to handle. In a comprehensive 1982 study, one major seminary found that its alumni felt least prepared in their ability to get people working together toward a common goal. Apparently, putting a vision in a form that inspires and energizes is a major hurdle.” One fact is true. Leaders who effectively communicate goals to their followers are paid far beyond those who do not.

The key is not only getting to the “got it” stage, where you have the dream personally, but it’s passing that dream on to others.