Christian Living

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Alright – I wanted to dive into the all too familiar topic of Potential. One spring night I was sitting around our little backyard fire pit entertaining friends and as the night was enclosing and the fire was fading these thoughts came to mind. I hope you will understand what I am trying to say.

When looking at a fire and watching the burning of the wood, I am amazed a how little ash remains of the once great chunk of wood it started out to be. Then I think of how before that wood was burned, it possessed outstanding potential. That wood could have been used for so many useful things like a doorway, vase, bowl, picture frame, lumber for a house or even some paper for writing on. However, what was the fate of this simple piece of wood? To be spent in a fire in the middle of Spring not simply for heat as if in the dead of Winter for even that would have had it’s productive use. No, this fire was only capitalized for its entertaining value. All of its potential and abundant energy was expelled into a few dancing flames and wisps of smoke.

This wood and fire is like so many of our lives. Many lives are put to good use realizing the potential contained within but unfortunately too many more lives are spent in simple pursuit of pleasure in the here and now. Before one knows it, they turn after countless seasons of expending energies on meaningless things only to find their hopes, dreams, as well as their futures have crumbled into a heap of ashes and their potential is lost in a proverbial puff of smoke.

How do you avoid becoming an ash pile? Intention! Focused intention to be precise. We must constantly reevaluate where we are in our lives and where it is we want to go in order to reach our dreams. Hence, the importance of goal setting should be obvious. Even God said that without a vision (purpose, goal, focused intention) the people perish (Proverbs 29:18). I personally know that even with intention we can still become distracted with the cares of this world. Hence, the need for focused intention.

How do we become focused? And on what do we properly focus so as to avoid the distractions? The answer is quite simple but sometimes harder to apply. The answer is God’s word and His purpose for our lives. If we find out from God why we are here then we can live with intention. And by staying in His word we become focused on completing His purpose. By combining both we have focused intention in which the blaze of our lives will give off the heat of purpose and not some entertaining sense of loss to others watching. I encourage you today to go live with purpose! Develop a focused intention today by getting into God’s word!

God bless! – Rick

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