Have Faith - October Edition

Day 29 & 30
Press on towards the goal to win the prize...
The Goal...
How easy is it to score a goal on a football
pitch? When you have nothing in front of
you, it is easy. Dribble the ball straight down
the pitch and then tap it in. You don’t even
need to get out of breath. The thing is, once
you’ve scored, there is no real feeling of
achievement. It is empty, almost false as if
you’ve cheated. But put a team in front of
you and it suddenly turns in to a real struggle.
Players trying to tackle you, the slow, dribbling
straight line to goal turns in to a zig zag
of sprints and huge effort just to get to the
goal. When you get there, there is a keeper
in the way who is hell bent on stopping you
from scoring. But when you finally hit the
back of the net, you’ve done it!! You’ve struggled
through, didn’t give up and scored.
Every week, we see this happen. 90 minutes
of hard work with maybe one or two goals to
show for it. It’s funny, I don’t even like football.
In our lives, we find the same struggles.
Our personal goals are seldom easy to
achieve, when they are easy, they rarely
leave us with a sense of achievement. Over
the last few years, I have been determined to
get realistic help for other veterans in my
area. Every direction I turned lead to a dead
end or another barrier I had to climb over. I
Elephant Sandwiches...
One of the best army officers I ever knew
used to say to me ‘Paul, take small bites out
of elephant sandwiches.’ I used to laugh to
myself and consider calling the men in white
coats but what I didn’t realise is that he would
always see when I was getting a little
stressed and flustered. He would say this to
me to get me to take small bites out of a huge
task. That way I would always finish the task.
These days, I have taken on this saying and
call on it every time the task ahead seems
daunting. There have been similar sayings
such as ‘One day at a time...’ or ‘Never bite
off more than you can chew...’ They all mean
the same thing but at the end of the day, I
suppose it’s what helps you through. However
there are two phrases I have come
across which I’m sure you all know but I
Proverbs 3: 5-6
got frustrated, angry, felt like giving up so
many times but something just kept pushing
me forward. I made a lot of mistakes along
the way, some worse than others but every
mistake taught me a valuable lesson that
gave me the tools to succeed. I failed many
times. Each failure made me try a little
harder and made me more determined.
When I finally made it happen and I achieved
my aim. The feeling was incredible. This is
definitely the road God had put me on. He
needed me to fail, he needed me to make
mistakes, he needed me to suffer in the way
I have done so this final goal, which will help
so many, could be achieved properly. When
I look at how St Paul viciously persecuted
Christians, had innocent people stoned and
imprisoned just for being Christian, I see the
road that God had put him on. If he hadn’t
done these things, he could not have been
chosen to become the apostle that he turned
into. He understood more than most because
he had seen both sides of the fence
and fought to turn his life from bad to good.
We read St Paul’s letters throughout the new
testament and we believe what he has to say.
Just a though springs to mind, would you
have believed him 2000 years ago?
Proverbs 3: 5-6
would still like to remind you of them. The
first is ‘Your future is built on the strength you
have gained in the past’. This is all about
having faith in yourself, trust in your abilities.
You have been given them for a reason. The
second is from the Bible. ‘Those who trust in
the Lord will find new strength’. This is from
Isaiah 40: 31. A very basic and short piece
of advice but so true. Just trust in him, he will
guide you, strengthen you and help you to
the end of your journey. Worth remembering
that one. Finally, I have to say that I will
never forget that old crazy saying from my
army boss. He taught me how to finish tasks
in a very realistic and eccentric way but it
works. But most of all trust in yourself and
your own abilities but most importantly trust
in God in everything you do.
| 26 Have Faith