If you had to travel to Portland, Maine right now, what would you do? With the technology we have today, perhaps you would go online and buy a plane ticket. Maybe if you weren’t wealthy enough to do that you would drive there. If you were to drive there, which way would you go? What roads would you take and how would you know they’re the right ones to take?
Once again, because of technology, you would probably type into your GPS or phone “Portland, Maine” and it would immediately pop up the best route for you to take. Let’s say you didn’t have GPS, what would you do then? Perhaps you would find an Atlas or map of some sort and scout out and track your route there.
What if you took that away? How are you going to get there now? MAybe you could ask some people to see if they knew how to get there? Maybe you would just get a compass and start heading northeast on roads and try and find your way there.
I heard a podcast the other day that was talking about the sailors who explored the Pacific ocean. The difference between these sailors and anyone traveling today is that these sailors didn’t have any destination in mind. They didn’t even have the luxury of a city they were going to. Almost everyone today, even if they hop on a random plane, has some destination they are going to. The course is set to somewhere and therefore you can navigate in some fashion or another.
But if you had no end destination planned, you are going out literally in complete exploration.
People probably don’t realize how the pacific was explored, but literally, the way it was explored was setting a course in a straight direction from where they were and going out a certain number of miles and if they didn’t find anything, turning back. Then they would set their course in a little bit of a different direction and go out that way. They went island by island, exploring and finding the next place to explore.
Today we have satellites and all kinds of technology to map out where things are so that we don’t have to get lost, but the basic purpose of these sailors was to get lost and find something to grab ahold of. They tracked their paths, but other than that it was a shot in the dark. Maybe they would find something, maybe they wouldn’t.
As I relate this to my own life and as I see so many people setting courses for their next year or decade going into 2020, I think about what I want my direction to be. I’m a big believer in that “People don’t get overwhelmed by too much to do, people get overwhelmed by being too vague about whatever it is they have to do” – T.K. Coleman
So I understand the importance of setting specific goals that are achievable. Ones that you can daily work toward. But what if there’s another layer to goal setting? It’s having achievable goals that you can work toward, but also going out on a limb to see if you can find something that no one has found before. Explore places that many are too scared to find.
You may have times where you travel for a hundred miles and find nothing, but it’s not in vain. You’ve found a hundred miles that don’t have a future for you and you’ve learned how to be a better sailor along the way.
What if we set goals so extreme and far out there that we have to explore the unknown to get there? We have to go out of our comfort zone to achieve it.
As I go into 2020, most of my goals are centered around my walk with Christ. My biggest goal is that in my weakness and tiredness I would turn to Christ and not physical rest. That when I am hustling, I would be hustling toward Christ and when I rest, I would fall back into His arms.
I thrive in business. I pursue Christ best when I am busy and doing the work that He has set out for me. But when I need rest, and all of us do, I tend to fall back into worldly habits and look to earthly rest thinking it will renew me to continue fighting the good fight, but I want these times of weariness to force me to pursue Christ more. To rely on Him more.
When I need something to do, I want to be giddy to have time in his word, when I feel tired, I want to fall to my knees and ask Him for rest, when I feel lowly and forgotten, I want to point my mind to serving him and others better. Get my mind off myself.
In all of these things, the goals are specific for me. I know what I need to do, yet the destination isn’t very specific. I want the destination to be like the sailors exploring the Pacific. I don’t know where it will take me. I’ll track my course, I know what I’m doing to get there, but I don’t know where “there” is. That’s not up to me. That’s up to God.
This year I want to not be afraid to dream big in saying “God, if you want me to be the person who shares the gospel with an entire country, I am ready.” And to not be too prideful to say “God, if you want me to stay in Austin for the entire year, I am ready.”
In all of this, being faithful in the places that He has put me and a light to those around me.
God is good and I can’t wait to see what he does this next year.