Steven Covey wrote the book “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.” It is not an easy reading book, but its principles are powerful. The first habit is to live your life with the end in mind; what exactly do you want to do with your life besides just live and do whatever? I like to declare that I am the world’s greatest fisherman. I know that I am not, but even if I was, that is not much of a legacy to leave behind after living 80 years. It is like, so what, who cares, what difference does that make? The other day in my blog, I said I had a goal to become the world’s greatest gardener; I don’t really, but even if I did have that goal and accomplished it, what difference did I make in anyone’s life? Who would remember that? So, what is my aim in life? What do I hope to achieve and be remembered for as a result of living my life? In a sentence, I want to be remembered as a man who taught the Bible accurately and in such a compelling way that all those who heard it understood it completely and were motivated to live it faithfully. There are many other things that I want to accomplish with my life related to my marriage, my kids, my grandkids, and other people, but the main thing is my teaching ministry.

So, if that really is the target of my life, it ought to influence how I live my life, how I use my time, the priorities of my choices all day long, and the focus of my prayer life. The more focused a person lives their life, the more successful they will be.

So, what are the things you want to be remembered for? If asked that question, many people will respond with a glib, “Oh, you know, just to be a nice guy that everybody liked.” Most people have not thought about it much. It is a habit of highly effective people; “They live life with the end in mind.” The best way to become that kind of motivated person is to develop the skill and practice of writing goals for your life. The apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9 that he didn’t run the race without aim, nor do I.

In his book “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,” Covey tells a story about a man who finds himself at a Memorial Service, looks in the casket, sees himself, and realizes that he has died and the service is for him. He listens to what people say about him during the service and during the fellowship time after the service. Covey asks, “What would you like to hear people say as they remembered the life you lived? His principle is that effective people live their lives with the end in mind; they live their lives with purpose.

Today was the memorial service for Aaron Donahue. It was a long service because many people shared about Aaron and his life, and it was packed with people who knew and loved him. Obviously, Aaron Donahue lived his life well and loved and served other people sacrificially. Even though it was a sad time because he will be missed, it was also a very joyous, upbeat celebration of the life of a man who lived and finished his life well even though he was only 41 years old when he died.

It is sad to think of the number of people who aren’t living their lives well, who are selfish, who make one bad choice after another, and whose love doesn’t go beyond themselves.

In our world of messed-up people and the daily bad news of the wrangling and fighting going on everywhere, a gathering like today’s was incredibly refreshing.

I have quite a few big goals this year on my list of 76 goals for 2025. I got a bit carried away while writing them and thought I should delete some of them. I can’t figure out which ones to delete, so I will just go for them and see what happens.

One of them is to revive my aquaponics system. Everything is still in place, and I should be able to get it going without much trouble. Instead of Tilapia, I will use trout, bass, or catfish for my fish part of the system. The problem with the Tilapia is that I had to heat the water, which added an enormous cost to the venture. It was a fun experiment, and I look forward to doing it again.

Another is to peddle my bicycle to Fairbanks, Alaska, and back. It will be a goal that I can accomplish because of having a support vehicle, taking breaks, and riding in the vehicle when I need to.

Another is to put in a quarter-acre fish pond and have it stocked with lots of bass so I can catch fish any time I want. It will be lined, have water plants around the edge, have a pump, and have a little waterfall that Patty will enjoy.

Another is to put in a 2000-square-foot garden and grow enough food for our ten-person family. I have never gardened before; I have always left that for the ladies, so I am reading many books on how to be the world’s best gardener.

Another is to grow the Jefferson Evangelical Church to be a church of 100 people in average attendance by the end of 2025.

Another is to start and finish writing two books.

Another goal is to recruit and train ten different churches to use my leadership class material to make disciples in their churches.

Another is to get my 26-foot dory in Alaska in tip-top fishing shape, learn how to catch halibut well, take four people out fishing 20 times, and limit out with ten halibut every time.

Any time I feel tired and unmotivated, I read my goals and get all jazzed up again. Try it.

Chuck Swindoll, one of my ministry heroes, announced his retirement from pastoring his church today. He is 90 years old and will spend time writing books, coaching pastors, and working on his radio broadcasts. I will be 76 in one month, 14 years from 90. I think I can preach and teach until I am 90; I will make that my goal anyway. I preached Sunday at the Evangelical Church, tonight at JBC’s Wednesday service, I taught a lesson at the Seniors gathering this afternoon, and on Saturday, I am speaking at a Memorial service. Tonight, as I sit in my recliner writing this, I am feeling good, fulfilled, and happy. I am incredibly blessed to be investing my life in doing what I enjoy and what God wired me to do.

Chuck Swindoll is an energetic 90-year-old who runs the race of his life with his eye on the finish line, which is way out in front of him. He has many goals that he is pursuing and can’t slow down until he reaches them.

I have so many goals I will have to live to be 120 to reach them all, and I really don’t want to do that; oh well, I will finish them in heaven.

I have so much fun writing out my goals for the following year. I am basically planning my entire life for the following year. Fishing trips, hunting trips, bicycle trips, visit kids trips, building projects, ministry projects and plans, learning goals, writing, and a bunch more. There are 365 little squares on my calendar and 24 hours each day, so I spend my hours on paper. I often counsel people on their finances and tell them to spend their money on paper, which is a budget, before spending it in real life. In finance, the budget ensures balance and responsible spending if they stick with the plan. Goals do the same. Balance is a significant reason I set goals. There is my family life, my ministry, my personal walk with God, my hobbies, my adventures, my physical home and its maintenance, my exercise, and my new adventures. As I write goals, calculate costs in money and time, add them up, rewrite, juggle, adjust, and recalculate, after a while, I arrive at what I consider the perfect plan for my life. While I am thinking and planning, I am constantly praying, asking God for wisdom and guidance, and seeking His will for my life.

One of the things that I know for sure because of years of experience in writing and pursuing my goals is that many things will change as I go through the year. I present my goals to the Lord on my birthday as my commitment to Him to bear much fruit for His glory. I pray, “Dear Lord, this is what I believe is Your will for my life, and I present it to You now. I know I have missed some things, so I am open to any additions, subtractions, and changes You may want to make, but in the meantime, I am moving full steam ahead in faith.

Many people don’t write goals. There are many reasons given, but with most, it is the fear of failing. Once we write goals, we have defined what success is for ourselves, and we would like to keep that fuzzy. People who write goals have more energy, passion, enthusiasm, fun, accomplish more, and have much more control over their own lives. This is an excellent time to write goals for 2025; you can do it.

It is one month until my birthday, and my tradition is that I start my new goals for the next year on my birthday, so I am starting to write them now. Many of my goals are the same as previous goals. I don’t really need to write them down as a goal because they are an established habit with me now after all the years of doing them, but I use my goals as an example as I teach goal setting to others, so I include them. I will have 76 goals this year because that is how old I will be on October 27th. But after I get them all written, I will make a condensed version of about 40 goals that will be a challenge to accomplish, and I will read them every day to help keep up my motivation to pursue them. For the next month, I will pray and think about what should be included and which ones I probably ought not to pursue. Some of them I will write down, and then in a couple of days, I will take them off and then put them back on again

One of those “on again – off again” goals is a bicycle trip to Alaska. Last year’s trip didn’t go very well, but I know why and could make some adjustments. I know that physically, I am either past doing this kind of thing or close to it. It would undoubtedly be easier not to do this. But I would like to make one more trip, and Alaska was my first bicycle trip. I would make 60 miles the maximum number of miles per day we would ride, we would have a support vehicle, and I don’t want to be gone for more than 35 days. From my house to Fairbanks, it is 2500 miles, so we would need to pick and choose what sections we would bike and what sections we would drive. We could drive 1,000 miles from our house into British Colombia in two days, take 25 days to ride 1500 miles to Fairbanks, rest a day with our daughter Shelly’s family, and then take five days to drive home. Or we could bike five days from our house, ride 500 miles in one day, bike for five days, ride in the rig a day, and then bicycle again, keeping up that pattern to Fairbanks, and then do the same all the way home, taking a different route. That would be seven days driving in the support vehicle for 3500 miles and 25 days riding bicycles for 1,500 miles. However we do it, I think it is a goal I can accomplish. It would be a challenge but fun and beautiful.

So, I need a support vehicle and a driver. I think my brother, Cliff, and his wife, Kathy, will ride with me; anyone else? If interested, let me know.

Today was my second Sunday preaching at Jefferson Evangelical Church in Jefferson. Today was also the formal commissioning of me as the church’s pastor. I am not abandoning JBC as I take on this new role.

I preach at JBC’s Wednesday service each week, I teach my Leadership class material on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, I am actively involved in helping the “Senior’s Ministry on Wednesdays from 2:00 to 4:00 pm, I am on the Leadership Team of “Men’s Ministry” at JBC, I am coaching four different Pastors in different churches, I am mentoring a young man at JBC who wants to go into ministry, I coach and train people at JBC who want to start a ministry at JBC, I attend the 8:30 am service on Sunday mornings at JBC, I am on the Elder board, I am part of a “Men’s Accountability Group” and working on starting two more groups, and I participate in three different corporate prayer times at JBC. I have been at JBC for 48 years as its pastor, and it will always be my church, but now “Jefferson Evangelical Church” is my church as well. Why do this?

I love the Church of Jesus Christ and strongly believe in God’s desire to see unity between various churches, especially those in the same town. I have the time now that Pastor Mike Dedera is preaching at JBC; I have the desire to preach and the passion to do as much as possible with my life for the Lord, and one of my life mottos is, “When God gives you an open door, walk through it, He will give me what I need to succeed.” My goal is to preach here for two years, maybe more, and to mentor someone who would take my place, love the church, and serve it well.

Yesterday and today were woodcutting days at our house. We split and stacked about six cords of wood. I am totally tuckered out tonight trying to keep up with grandkids working all day. It feels good to be tired from good old physical work. I enjoy working with my grandkids and seeing their work ethic in action; they are good kids. We targeted several character traits when we raised our kids, and diligence was one of the main ones. It is good to see that our grandkids are being taught well the importance of diligence in their lives. My parents did a very good job of parenting me and instilled in me the value of working hard at whatever we did. My work ethic was probably my number one strength in my Pastoral ministry over the years. Chuck Swindoll said that the most significant problem for most pastors was laziness. One of my Dad’s words of encouragement when I struggled in the early years of pastoring was, “You can succeed at anything if you are willing to work hard until you accomplish your goal. Key Bible verses in this area for me are, Colossians 3:23-24
“Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.”

Fruit flies are everywhere in our house. Patty is peeling and cutting up apples in order to make apple sauce. I love apple sauce, but I hate fruit flies. I wonder where they come from, and why when apples are in our house here they come. I have a glass of apple juice that I am drinking while reading and writing, and I am sure I have swallowed several dozen flies trapped in my juice. I googled fruit flies to see if I was going to get some weird disease ingesting them, but they appear harmless. They are so small you can’t even count them as a source of protein. They don’t bite and rarely even land on me, but sometimes, one hovers an inch away between my eyes and makes me cross-eyed.

Fruit flies are just big enough to see. Like fruit flies, there are germs and bacteria all around me that I can’t see, and I suspect they are also in my apple juice. And then there are demons everywhere around us. I certainly hope none of those dudes got into my apple juice. There is a huge unseen realm around us that is real, annoying, and dangerous.

God has many roles in our lives, and one of them is protector. There are dangers everywhere around us, and we are incapable of protecting ourselves from most of them. Check out this Psalm. I have memorized it and often fall asleep while meditating on it running it through my mind.

Psalms 3:1-7 O Lord, how my adversaries have increased!
Many are rising up against me.
Many are saying of my soul,
“There is no deliverance for him in God.”
But You, O Lord, are a shield about me,
My glory, and the One who lifts my head.
I was crying to the Lord with my voice,
And He answered me from His holy mountain.
I lay down and slept;
I awoke, for the Lord sustains me.
I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people
Who have set themselves against me round about.
Arise, O Lord; save me, O my God!
For You have smitten all my enemies on the cheek;
You have shattered the teeth of the wicked.

One of the significant balancing acts in relationships is “influence but don’t control.” Every person has a desire to control others and a strong desire not to be controlled by others. It is a subtle desire that rarely comes into our conscious thinking but is always there, influencing us as we relate to others.

I am reading a book right now on relationships. The book references a study that was done on hundreds of couples who had gotten a divorce. Most divorces happen because of the inability to resolve conflict, and most conflicts are driven by a desire to control.

The New Testament, especially the teaching of Jesus, repeatedly says to be a servant. Being a servant doesn’t mean we do all the nasty jobs; it means we relinquish all control.

Mark 10:42-44 Jesus said to them, “You know that those who are recognized as rulers lord it over them; and their great men exercise authority over them. But it is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant; and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all.

Jesus says that if we humble ourselves, He will exalt us; if we make ourselves last, He will make us first.

This is a very important area of self-reflection whenever we have any kind of conflict with another person. “Why did this conflict happen?” “What did I do wrong?” What could I have done better at?” A person that Jesus blesses and uses for His purposes and glory is a servant; that is, he seeks to influence but not to control, and he doesn’t mind not winning an argument.