Pressing Towards the Goal 1/4

Have you ever been in church, sitting through just another “regular” service when, all of a sudden, you hear the WEIRDEST thing you’ve ever heard in your whole life? Maybe it hasn't happened to you yet, but that was my case a few years ago. Many moons ago (well, not that many, it was back in 2005) I was a freshman theology major at Southern Adventist University. One weekend, my friend invited me to come up to western North Carolina to preach at one of his churches.

So me, along with about 5-6 other people all packed into a few cars and drove all the way to western North Carolina, stayed with some nice hosts and did a service at this church. Now, this church was a not big at all. During Sabbath School there were maybe about 25 people. They were great people though; there was nothing too much out of the ordinary about them. However, during Sabbath school, it happened.

During the normal teacher/class interaction regarding how was their week, one lady asks for the mic and says “I want to thank God because I’ve reached perfection.” Immediately, my ears shot up like a dog hearing a noise in the house. “Yes, I want to thank God because since Wednesday of this week, I haven’t thought or said anything sinful.” My friend who had invited us over for the weekend quipped back: “I think you may want to start over because you’ve fallen through your boasting.”

The apostle Paul in his letter to the Philippians had a different view of himself when he wrote

  

"Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own."

Even though he had, up to that point, done more “good things” than many of us combined, Paul still admitted that “hey, I’m not perfect; I haven’t figured this whole thing out yet.” As we begin our series entitled “Pressing towards the Goal,” I believe that we should possess 4 important characteristics if we hope to reach our goals as individuals or as a body of believers.

The first lesson is found in the first part of verse 13:

 13A Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet;

In other words, I believe that in order to reach our goals,we must have a balanced view of ourselves!

There are two ways people tend to view themselves. Either as too high and mighty (like Ms. Perfect in the opening story). Or through the eyes of what’s called The Grasshopper Complex.  You can read about it in Numbers 13:33, but basically this is when you doubt your potential for achievement by throwing some excuse (weather real or imagined) in order to prevent you from trying. Whenever you find the grasshopper complex in either people or an institution, it stunts the growth that’s possible. Why? Because your negative view of yourself becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

You say you can’t achieve what you’re aiming for. Why? Because (insert excuse here). So what ends up happening? You don’t do anything and, because you don’t achieve your goals, you say it’s not worth trying. Why? Because you can’t achieve what you aim for. It's a vicious cycle.

Imagine the difference in outlook if, instead of calling a small church a small church, they called themselves as “a growing church.” Sure, the reality may be that there are only 15 people in the church, but their identity is no longer that of tiny, lowly grasshoppers; there is a drive for future success based on a balanced view of themselves.

Optimistic people and institutions tend to see success as being part of personal traits that they bring and failure as being caused by unfortunate circumstances. Pessimistic people see failure as part of personal traits that they bring and success as part of random fortunate circumstances. How do you see yourself today? Have you lived with a grasshopper complex? Today, it’s time to get that stigma off your back, have a balanced view of yourself and say like Paul, I’m not perfect; I know that I haven’t reached my goals yet. I’m still working to get there, but I believe that, one day, I will get there!

So tomorrow, go out there and work to be something great (in the words of Mr. Miyagi from the “Karate Kid”) “young grasshoppers.”