Relentless

While I was running this morning I had some pretty convicting thoughts. Last night we had our monthly Operation Christmas Child Area Team meeting. We spent some time praising God for all He's done for and in our team since last November. Then we looked at our ministry plan--our goals for the year--to evaluate how we're doing.

Goals are necessary to give us a structure for ministry but as I ran this morning I realized that too often those ministry goals are keeping me sidetracked from the elemental goal, or mission, of my life.

If I were to articulate my personal mission statement it would be "To enjoy and glorify God and to allow Him to work in me to help as many other people as possible to enjoy and glorify Him too."

Here's the confession: I think I've been focusing too much on specific ministry goals (ie: praying for 30,333 shoeboxes in our area this year, begging God to give us 30 new participating churches, obsessing over details for a giant Operation Christmas Child packing party) and not nearly enough on enjoying and glorifying God.

God, You know I'm achievement oriented. You created me so You know my tendency to relentlessness and I believe You want to use it for Your glory. But You really want me to follow You relentlessly. And You're relentless in that pursuit for my life. In the words of the song, "You won't relent until You have it all."

God, I want as many people as possible in this world to enjoy and glorify You with me. That's why I'm asking you to give us more than 30,333 Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes--gospel opportunities--from Northwestern PA. And I'm asking for 630,000 from the Mid-Atlantic region. And 5.5 million from the US. And 8.5 million worldwide. But God, will you keep reminding me of the elemental reason for working so hard to get all these shoeboxes?

Because in the midst of the victories--the successful packing parties, the trucks full of shoeboxes, the goals achieved--if I fail to enjoy and glorify You, then I've relentlessly failed.