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Mission Accomplished…

By July 23, 2013August 30th, 2022Devotional

Last evening I slept in my own bed; and tonight I plan to do the same, but right now, I am in the Admiral’s Club at DFW in Dallas. I have been quite busy and I just didn’t have two days to travel here and back as I usually do. So I bit the bullet, got up at 4:45 am Indy time, headed to the airport at 5:30, went through security and boarded the plane for a 7:25 am departure to Dallas. Now those of you who know me realize that this is the middle of the night for me.

I tend to work late most evening and sometimes I find it difficult to fall asleep before midnight or later, at the earliest. Last week, I had to go to Evansville and I must have forgotten that I am now 60 years old. I woke up about the same time I did this morning, only that time, I drove to downtown Indy, picked up a co-worker, and then drove more than 3 hours to southern Indiana for a meeting that started at 8:30 central time. I worked until 6:00 pm and then reversed course, driving back to downtown Indy and finally arrived back in Carmel late that evening – more than a 14 hour day, with 7 hours of it driving a car.

To say I was tired is an understatement. And the next day I was close to worthless. But I got done what I needed to get done… So, if I didn’t already have my ticket for the flight to Dallas, I might have reconsidered – no, I definitely would have reconsidered. But the ticket was purchased so I followed the plan. In another hour or so I will take off for home and can’t wait to see Janet and get back into my own home. I am not the traveler I used to be, I guess. Then tomorrow, after working all day, I will drive to Evansville and spend the night there – hopefully refreshed for an early meeting on Thursday that should allow me to get back to Carmel in time for dinner.

The point of all this is that it is almost impossible to believe that a person can travel thousands of miles and end up the place they started, all in the same day. I can’t even imagine what the Mercury astronauts experienced as they were shot into space, circled the earth a number of times and then returned to a safe splashdown after going hundreds of thousands of miles in the same day. It must have been awesome. With a tremendous sense of accomplishment. That’s how I feel when I have completed the task at hand.

And although the flights are much fuller than they used to be, the quality of the flights is still quite remarkable. Well, time to sign off – we’re now getting ready to board…

Okay, I spoke too soon in that last paragraph about the quality of the flights. I just arrived in Indy and we were stuck on the tarmac for more than 30 minutes because our gate was occupied by another jet. So we sat out on the runway and eventually were re-routed to B13, on the same side but further down from our original destination. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a ground crew at the new gate so we still waited more than 35 minutes to get off the plane. After all those miles today, we were within 100 yards of the goal – so close and yet so far away…

That’s how it can be with our spiritual lives We spend years trying to become spiritually mature and an influence for others and we have to be careful that we don’t fall short of the goal. Paul spoke of this in his epistles. If we don’t get to the destination, then all the effort is in vain. In Acts, Paul tells us that we must persevere and in we learn Acts 20:24, “However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.”

My encouragement this evening is that God wants us to run the race for Him and make sure that we don’t fade in the stretch. My prayer is that you will remain a faithful follower all the days of your life and that you will never let your enthusiasm for the Gospel wane. Have a great day in the Lord, grace and peace…

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