I just finished writing 78 goals for this next year. I like to finish them before my leadership class starts so I can include a copy in each student’s notebook. Some of my goals are repeats from previous years: read ten chapters of my Bible every day, pray with Patty three times a week, go on a date with Patty twice a month, and read 50 pages each week in a good book. Some of my goals are new ministry goals: write and teach 20 lessons on prayer at the Wednesday night service this year, record them on video, and use them to help other churches grow in their devotion to prayer. I am very excited about this one. Another new goal is to write a curriculum and lessons for a “Leadership III” class, teach it next year in the Wednesday service, and then start a regular yearly class. These lessons will be on how to successfully lead a ministry so that God blesses it and people’s lives are impacted by it. And then I have my B-HAG’s, big, hairy, audacious goals, ones that are nearly impossible to accomplish. Ride my bicycle to Fairbanks, Alaska; climb Mt. Adams; regularly practice shooting my bow so that I get to the point where I can pull 70 lbs easily; and start working on a 28 ft “Great Alaskan” fiberglass fishing boat and trailer. I have 15 goals for Jefferson Evangelical Church, where I am pastoring, and I look forward to the challenge of accomplishing them. Some people wonder about the feasibility of managing 78 goals, it is easy if you write them down and read them several times every week. Writing goals and reading them often keeps me thinking like a 30-year-old man instead of a 78-year-old man. I still feel like a 78-year-old man, but thinking like a young man because of my goals goes a long way toward conquering those feelings of tiredness. Why don’t you try writing some goals this year? Even a dozen would be great. 

When I start to feel a little bored and unmotivated, I start thinking about projects, goals, crazy stuff, and dreams. I recently made a goal to write out the entire Bible in five years. I read an article that writing, not typing, is really good for your brain. I am getting more interested in brain health as I get older. I did a bunch of research on writing. In the process, I read articles about several people who wrote out the entire Bible and how great a spiritual experience it was. It sounds like a lot of tedious work, but the goal excites and motivates me, and that is what I am looking for in a goal at this stage of my life. 

I am now building a camper for my pickup truck. It is built out of quarter-inch plywood and fiberglass. I am almost done, and then I am going to take some driving trips with Patty and some fishing trips with friends and family. When I finish my camper, I am going to start building a 28ft fishing boat with a cabin that will be very seaworthy, and start doing a bunch of fishing in the ocean. The truth is, the boat is so big and complicated that I will probably die before I finish it. That will be a very fun and challenging race, for sure! I am also working on a goal of climbing Mt. Adams in July and a goal to bicycle 2,000 miles somewhere. These may not happen, but I am having a lot of fun thinking about, planning, and writing about them. It costs nothing but a little time, and the resulting enthusiasm to get out of bed is worth it. My favorite goals are what I am going to do in ministry. Preaching, teaching, and writing goals that God will use. I have a goal that the church I am now preaching at on Sunday mornings will be a church of 100 before long, then 200, then 500, then 1000. Will that happen soon? Probably not, but it is fun to dream; it keeps me working on my preaching and planning, and it costs nothing, and I am not a bored or unmotivated old man. 

I got up this morning to get ready for church, and I slipped in the bathroom and wrenched my back. I was barely able to make it back to my bed. I was thankful that Stephen was already scheduled to preach this morning. I stayed in bed until noon, and now I am sitting in my recliner, loaded up on ibuprofen and Tylenol, hoping to heal up soon. Patty has a bum knee right now and is walking with a cane and a walker, and I am walking very slowly and deliberately. We are a pair. We take turns complaining to the other. It is interesting that, in the Bible, with all the personalities and stories, you don’t read much about personal ailments.

Eli was blind and overweight; several had leprosy; David was cold in his old age, but I have never read anything about bad hips, bad knees, or bad backs. I don’t know if they were healthier than us because of all the walking and sleeping on the ground, or if they died before the ailments started. However, numerous people were mentioned who lived well past my age. Maybe it was because they considered aches and pains as normal and didn’t mention them. It is a challenge for me to obey the basic commands in the Bible to rejoice always and to grumble about nothing. I often ask for God’s strength, like every ten minutes. I have so many goals for this next month that require me to be physically healthy. I plan to work on the electrical work in the house that Mike and Sarah, our daughter and son-in-law, are building. We need to get our firewood in for the winter before it starts raining a lot. I want to finish the camper I am building for my truck. And I need to get some outside house projects done for Patty. Plus, there are still some fishing and hunting dates on the calendar. We will get it done despite the physical roadblocks, and rejoice while we limp through life. 

I love watching football. Today I watched the game between the Oregon Ducks and the Boise Broncos. It was a good game, and I am glad Oregon won. Later, I saw a picture of both teams gathered together on their knees, praying. It was a very moving picture for me. Since 1989, I have made prayer the central focus of my life and ministry. I consider every problem, every pressure, every disappointment, and every trial a motivation to pray more. I believe that the more time I spend in prayer, the more strength I will have, the more wisdom I will have, the more success in every area of life I will have, and the more blessings I will have from God. It isn’t easy to devote much time to prayer, especially for someone like me, who has so many goals to accomplish. The devil is constantly working on our minds, trying to convince us that a little prayer is good enough. He is afraid of prayer; he has no defense against prayer. When we pray, God commissions and strengthens angels to battle against the devil and his demons. When we pray with our spouse, our marriage is better; when we pray for our kids and grandkids as a couple, they are more blessed by God; when we pray for our church and with our church, it grows and becomes a powerful tool for God. Prayer is the most powerful force on the planet Earth, but we neglect prayer so much; why?

Patty loses her car keys and her cell phone almost daily. Every time she loses one or the other, I give her a lecture about always putting them in the same place without exception. Never, ever lay them down except in the designated places. I have given that lecture hundreds of times, but to no avail. I usually add at the end of my little lecture, look at me; I have never lost my keys. Yesterday I lost my keys, and they had to be somewhere very small, between my pickup truck and my recliner. I didn’t go anywhere else. I looked everywhere in the truck, and I practically took my recliner apart looking for my keys. It was terribly frustrating because it was like they had disappeared. Finally, my grandson’s girlfriend, who was visiting from Washington, found them in the garbage can near where I usually park the pickup. Evidently, I took the keys out, picked up some garbage on the floor of my truck, and when I threw the garbage in the garbage can, I also threw the keys in. I am not sure what prompted her to look in the garbage can, but I am glad she did. Obviously, I took a lot of ribbing from all of my family for losing my keys- the one who never does. The spiritual lesson is simple; the area that you become proud in will sooner or later become the area that you will fail in.