"A GOAL WITHOUT A PLAN IS JUST A WISH"

    If we ask people about their goals in life, we may get quick and precise responses... to find a certain kind of employment, to start a business, to learn to play an instrument, to retire early. But many of those same people may have no idea how they will accomplish their goals.

    Having goals is important. Without goals, we don't know where we're headed. But having a goal is easy; planning to achieve it is the hard part. What's the first step? How long will it take to reach the goal? What kinds of effort will we need to make? How likely is success? Who can help? The bible, in PROVERBS mentions that a people without a vision will parish.

    Some people feel like a small pebble lost in the greatness of the Grand Canyon. But no matter how insignificant we judge ourselves to be, we can be greatly used by God.

    In a sermon early 1968, Martin Luther King Jr., quoted JESUS words from (MARK 10), about servant hood saying," everybody can be great, because everybody can serve." You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and your verbs agree to serve. You don't have to know Plato and Aristotle to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by Love.

    When JESUS' posse quarreled or shall I say disciples - about who would get the places of honor in heaven, He told them, "Whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant,"and whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all". For even the son of God did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.

    Sometimes I wonder about humankind. Is that of our understanding of greatness? Are we gladly serving, doing tasks that may be unnoticed? Is the purpose of our serving to please our Lord, rather than to gain the applause of people? If we are willing to be a servant, we can achieve true greatness. Little things done in Christ name are great things.(MARK 10:43), "Whoever desires to be great among you shall be your servant."

    Imagine the obstacles a person would have to overcome to walk from New York City, to San Francisco. A man who had accomplished this feat was asked about his biggest hurdle. He said that the toughest part of his trip wasn't walking up the mountains or crossing hot, dry barren of desert. The thing that came the closest to defeating him was the sand in his shoes.

    This reminds me of how we can be spiritually defeated by what begins as a little irritant. We let an unkind word, small setback or a misunderstanding get us down, or we allow people around us to influence us in little but wrong ways.

    Instead of being determined to avoid evil - big or small, we compromise; we neglect to go to the Lord for help. We would be wise to ask ourselves, "Shall I, who have come so far by faith, be defeated by, "Sand in my shoes?" We must answer with a resolute, NO! "We stumble over pebbles, not mountains".

(PROVERBS 4:14-15), "Do not walk in the way of evil. Avoid it, do not travel on it: turn away from it and pass on.