Blog Archive - January 2008

It’s been a crazy couple of weeks! In addition to my continuing home renovations (the kitchen is just about done, and my roommates’ bathroom is about 85% complete), I had some friends visit for the onething conference and the Luke18 prayer summit here. Following their visit, we had our monthly 3-day fast and solemn assembly. And at the end of the fast I took off for a week visit to the warm land of Arizona.

It was my first trip to the deep southwest. It is really amazing to see how much the landscape varies from one part of the country to another. I had never actually seen any kind of cactus up close until my visit. And I guess they are bigger than I always thought they were. But even after seeing them, I am still sure I would not want to fall into one of them.

I went to Arizona to visit a family I have known since 2003. I designed and maintain their business website, Dental Elite (free plug for you, Paul). The Zajas (pronounced “z-eye-iss”) family and I connected because we attended the same church when I lived in NH. They have two sons and daughter that are around my age. One of them has already graduated from Arizona State University, and the other two are not far behind. My trip to Arizona was not only to help them with their business and website, but to visit with them and spend long overdue time with them.

Now normally any time away from IHOP, whether for a ministry or support raising trip, is a time of “pouring out” for me unto those I am speaking with or ministering to. But this trip to Arizona for me was out of the ordinary. I felt like I “poured out” but through so many people, prayer meetings, and situations I felt “poured into”. I didn’t want to leave – not just because it was sunny and 65 degrees there, but because I believe I genuinely connected with the Lord’s heart for the city of Tempe and the greater Phoenix area.

With the new year always comes traditional new resolutions and a fresh resolve to change something in our lives. In the same spirit, I’ve been taking a hard look once again at my life vision and goals and restructuring some of my schedule and priorities for 2008. This poll is a direct result of that looking... I thought it might be cool to start a series of posts on the practical points of a life vision and the process of setting goals to achieve them with the help of the Holy Spirit. In these first few posts, I want to provoke you to actually look at your life vision in a new light, or if you don’t have one, to get one and start running with it.

When you fall asleep at night, what do you dream of for your life? What is your ultimate life vision? Is it to be a great business person with a large home and a nice BMW? A great father or mother? A great preacher with a large church and a large impact on your city or region? You may be very surprised if you ask your friends or family this question because there are not very many people who have actually thought about a vision for their lives and where they want to be when they begin to get older. Many are content just to glide through life just hoping to make the best of every circumstance.

Even when “vision” and “goals” are mentioned in a normal conversation amongst believers, more often than not we begin to state our goals and our vision for ministry and impact. We’ve all had big dreams of a large ministry or a large business with a big following and great success. In fact, most of the body of Christ still has this big dream. That isn’t such a bad dream, but it cannot be the ultimate dream of our hearts.