A Fresh Start-
in 2002
Resolutions mark the beginning
of the new year. Perhaps, there might have been many failures,
imposssibilities in the past year. Now through trust in God
and in yourself, through the reorganization of your life and
your thoughts, and through persistence, life will no longer
be impossible. You may be one of literally hundreds of people
for whom the impossible can be turned into the possible.
I don't know what's impossible to you. Maybe, you've had trouble
with relationships and can't believe you'll ever find stability
and happiness. Or maybe your impossibility lies in a different
area- in work, health, age, or womanhood.
Whatever it is, you're probably feeling bad about it.
Facing impossible can be debilitating. It can lead to depression,
produce frustration, and foster unhappiness. And the worse you
feel, the more impossible your situation becomes. Dreams recede.
Roads to the future are strewn with barbs. The thing that you
desperately want to do, to have, or to achieve remains obstinately
beyond your reach.
I want you to know there's a way around the impossible.
It begins with the word itself. Be careful waht you call impossible-
because as soon as you call something impossible, you make it
so. You become like a person shut in a room who says, "I
can't get out, I can't get out!" when all he needs to do
is push the door a little harder to find that it gives way.
That "pushing" consists of three things which I call
the TOP principles. TOP stands for: TRUST, ORGANIZE, and PERSIST.
The strategy is very straight forward, and it works. It has worked
for many people, famous as well as not-so-famous.
Do you have the qualities required to turn impossibility into
opportunity, dead ends into highways? You almost certainly do,
even if those strengths are lying dormant and need to be reactivated
by putting them to work.
But why trust, organize and persist at all? What makes
those three qualities so special in tackling the impossible.
Trust
There is a passage in the O.T. that is profoundly relevant to
the issue of trust, in Numbers 13. Similarly, not many of us can
comprehend with complete, cool objectivity the real proportions
of the impossible. We are forced, whether we like it or not, to
trust someone else's view. But this immediately confronts us with
a question: Whom are we going to trust? The pessimists? Or the
optimists- the Calebs who say at the borders of Canaan, "Let
us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to
overcome it" (Numbers 13:30)?
But Whom to Trust
"All things", said the Lord Jesus, "are
possible to him who believes"(Mark 9:23). So, first
we need to put our trust in God who is Almighty. Then, with reliance
on Him we trust our own judgement- not that of others with their
questionable agenda. About trusting yourself, let me remind you
that you do it everyday. If you trust yourself implicitly in simpe
things, you are capable of trusting yourself in all things. But
self-trust is only a foundation. We all need help. Realizing our
dependence on other people is one of the keys to doing the impossible.
Organize.
When you read to the end of the story in the Gospel of Mark 9:14-29,
you'll find an intriguing exchange between Jesus and His disciples.
Here we pass beyond trust. Trust had to be supplemented by a disciplined
spirituality.
A close look at the Gospels reveals that Jesus systematically
undergirded His public ministry with retreat and private prayer.
It's a good pattern to follow. Just as important, it serves as
an example of the general truth that you must organize if you
are to achieve. I suspect that thsi is the common denominator
of all achievers. Apart from Geographical detail, you'll find
that every one of them has at some point set a goal and then devised
a strategy to achieve it. Why set goals? Simply because goal-setting
is the antithesis of immobility. Although unhappiness and discontent
are powerful motivators, they can not give direction. Goals can.
Persist
Persistence is essential to success. There's an old ad man's motto:
the difficult we do immediately; the impossible takes a little
longer. It is that "little longer" that you cover with the strength
of persistence.
