And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3:17)

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things. (Philippians 4:8)

Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me--put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you. (Philippians 4:9)

These verses have been what I've been trying to make my week all about. Let me explain. On Monday i had a lecture from this guy named William Finnerty. Think blond Anthony Robbins. This guy was intense! He was all about the self-help mojo, writing down your goals and making a plan on how to attain them, cutting out a picture of what you want and then putting in on your bathroom mirror so every morning you remember what you're striving for, etc. etc. Case and point: he told us all to go out and buy a copy of Dale Carnegie's "How to get rich and fast."

Okay, obviously i'm painting this guy in a pretty bad light and he wasn't all that bad. A lot of the things he had to say was really good advice, and I admit that he definitely had a masters in social skills, which is extremely important in life and business. But i don't know, i think it's just the whole "in pursuit of what you want in life" is what's getting to me. The thing he, he applied it to ANYTHING.....saying that for him, it was money but for someone else it could be charity or helping others. The point is that he wanted us to realize that we have to KNOW what we want, WHY we want it and only then can we get to the HOW. I agree with that.

And i guess it just got me thinking about it is true; we often waste so much time in our lives going round in circles because we don't have a plan or we don't know where we're headed. Or, we do know where we're headed but we take the long way to accomplish it instead of taking shortcuts, like asking others who have been successful at it for their advice.

But anyways, it also had me thinking about what it is in the Christian context that we are supposed to be pursuing. Paul talks about running the race with an end in mind, which sounds a lot more like William Finnerty than I'd like to admit. Sounds like the Christian life is also about setting goals, albeit spiritual ones, and then TRAINING to achieve them. John Ortberg agrees. In his book, "The Life You Always Wanted" John Ortberg talks about spiritual disciplines and how we need to be striving with an end purpose in mind.

Let's bring it all together. One thing William Finnerty mentioned is that when you have a goal, you have to commit EVERYTHING to achieving it. In other words, you can't do a half-ass job. You can't dilly-dally around while thinking that someday you'll reach your destination....life is hard, and it doesn't come to you on a silver platter. Most of the time, you have to chase after it.