Let’s think about “playing to win” – illustrated both by the Las Vegas Raiders in last Sunday night’s game AND, in a more important venue, the British divers bolstered by the U.S. Air Force operations officers in their daring and successful rescue of all 12 boys and their coach trapped 2.5 miles from the opening of a water-filled cave. The cave divers’ goal was, essentially, way beyond reach, and my friend John Ed Mathison suggested in his weekly blog of January 5 that a beyond-reach goal is precisely what we should have. Here’s the way it begins:

HOW BIG IS YOUR VISION?

When you think you might see God’s vision for you for 2022, you can test it with two choices. The first choice is to see the vision opportunity as something that would be a “piece of cake.” You can assume that you have everything necessary to accomplish it. You know how well you have been trained and educated, and doing this would not be a problem. If you see it as an easy vision and one you can handle–it’s probably not God’s vision for you.

The other choice is to see the vision and immediately think that you are inadequate to accomplish it. That vision appears to be so big. You are eager to follow God’s will, but it just seems too big. That means that it is probably what God is calling you to do! – John Ed Mathison, January 5, 2022.

Jesus sent the first disciples on a VERY big mission – one clearly out of their reach:

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1.8, NIV)

Most, if not all, of those Jewish boys had never been outside the borders of Israel and Samaria, and Jesus is talking about “the ends of the earth.” And tradition tells us that they took their commission seriously. We think Thomas went to India, for example.

But the commission in Acts 1 also contains the secret to its success: “You will receive POWER when the Holy Spirit comes on you…” It’s his power, not ours. What does God want you (and me) to do this year? I’m still working on writing some goals, and I want to be sure to include some that are “unattainable.”

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us… (Ephesians 3.20, NIV)