In Song of Solomon 2:15 we are told, “little foxes are ruining the vineyard.” It is not usually the big things that sidetrack us, but the little things can distract us and even steer us from the path of life. The days we waste can quickly add up to weeks, months, and years, and the years can add up to robbing us of our life’s purpose.
I shared last week how I recently determined to define what a perfect day would look like for me and then pursue that each day. This made such a huge difference in my life, I lamented how much more fruitful my life could have been had I done this fifty years ago. Still, I know I can accomplish more in the time I have left than I did in the last fifty years, if I will be faithful to live day-to-day focusing on the most important things I need to do daily.
God’s name is not “I Was,” or “I Will Be,” it is “I Am”! It is important to know His historical dealings with men and biblical prophecy, but to know Him as He is, we must know Him in the present. To accomplish this, we must resolve to do this every day. “Today if you hear His voice do not harden your heart” (see Hebrews 3:7). Yesterday no longer exists, nor does tomorrow. All we really have is the present. We can learn from the past, and have vision for the future, but living in the now is where our focus should be.
It is good and important to have long-term goals and vision, but these are seldom accomplished without practical, step-by-step actions that must be followed with endurance and resolve. Success is not a matter of choosing long-term or short-term strategies, but both. One reason New Year’s resolutions seldom result in long-term change is because we have no short-term strategies for accomplishing them.
I have always been a visionary, a “big picture” person. I love broad concepts and bold strategies. I bore quickly with details. That is a weakness which can sometimes be costly. We cannot just do the part we enjoy without the drudgery we dislike when our accomplishments are dependent on both. That is why we are told to take up our crosses daily and follow Him. Doing what we like is not a cross.
One revelation that turned this around for me was when I realized the highest worship that most touches the Lord is when we turn what we most dislike into worship as unto the Lord. Such devotion touches Him far more than simply doing what we like.
Fulfilled visions usually happen when people are willing to do the hard work that is necessary for visions to come true. It is also necessary that leaders responsible for the “big picture” not become too distracted with details. What plane passenger would want to see the pilot helping the flight attendants serve in the cabin? No, we want the pilot glued to the instruments and looking at the conditions ahead. The key is to remain in the place we were meant to occupy, while understanding and respecting the duties and callings of others.
In another way, everyone must be moored to the practical details, including the highest leaders responsible for the most expansive visions. That is why the apostle Paul, arguably the most important missionary of all time, took time to do the tedious task of tentmaking. This kept him moored to the practical and able to identify with the people whose lives were spent doing such tasks.
Brother Lawrence, a dishwasher at a monastery, gave us a wonderful example of how even the humblest job done as worship unto the Lord can become the most noble and transcendent task. Consequently, the presence of the Lord abided with Lawrence, and kings and nobles traveled great distances to spend time with Lawrence, the humble dishwasher. Some said they would have traded their great positions and wealth for just an ounce of peace and joy like Brother Lawrence had.
We don’t need greater tasks to better serve the Lord; we need to make the tasks we now have greater. We do this by sanctifying them as worship to the Lord and doing all for Him with all our hearts.
© 2023 Rick Joyner. All Rights Reserved.
