Quote from Forum Archives on July 1, 2003, 1:01 am

Posted by: forthright <forthright@...>

Forthright Magazine
www.forthright.net
Going straight to the Cross

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Know where you want to get to. And go after it!
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GUEST ARTICLE

Goals
by Warren Baldwin

Wes and I were involved in the baseball program in
Cody, Wyo., with a boy whose goal is was to make
it to major league baseball. He is playing college
ball right now. In fact, you might have seen him
on TV recently as the catcher for SMS in the
college playoffs. He was an outstanding player as
a kid, involved at all levels of our community
program. Later, while still in high school, a
coach told him, "Kid, you are good. But, if you
want to go big time, you will have to go to some
place with more of a population. You need to test
your skills against better players." This young
man had family in the Denver area, so with the
blessings of his parents, he packed his bags and
went to live in Colorado. Oh, one more thing ...
he was recently chosen by the NY Mets.

Goals. One definition the dictionary provides for
goals is "the terminal point of a race." If you’ve
ever run track you know that "terminal point" is
the ribbon stretching across the track. We call
that "the goal line." The terminal point.

Do you have any terminal points in life? I state
this in the plural because I actually have several
goals. I have educational goals, financial goals,
family goals.

For example, one goal I want to achieve with my
family is to tour the New England states before my
children grow up and leave home. These are all, in
a sense, terminal points for me, ribbons stretched
out there somewhere in my future. I have my eyes
on them. I’m racing toward them. And someday I’ll
achieve them.

But one thing is most definite: I will never
achieve any of them unless they are indeed
terminal points set for me to reach.

We rarely stumble into success.

We don’t stumble into retirement financially set
-- we have to prepare for it.

We never stumble into educational accomplishment.
If you want that degree, you have to make it a
goal and work toward it.

And, I will never stumble into Maine with my
family. As far as that is away from here, we will
have to plan for it.

Terminal points.

But, I have one terminal point, one goal, that
overrides all the others. Every other goal must
play second fiddle to this one. Every other goal
must in someway further me along the track toward
this ribbon.

You know what I am speaking of: Heaven.

Jesus set heaven as a goal for his disciples.
Before he left them he said, "In my Fathers house
are many rooms ... I am going there to prepare a
place for you." John 14:2. A goal. A terminal
point.

I don’t believe I will stumble into heaven anymore
than I will stumble into the state of Maine. I
have to set my sights on it, plan for it, and live
for it. I hope you will do that, too. It gives us
something to live for. A terminal point.

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