I grew up listening to Southern Gospel music. Our favorite groups were the Cathedral Quartet, the Talley's, and Greater Vision. I fell in love with that music at a young age. Then as I got a little older, Janet Paschal became a favorite. I would watch singers like Janet Paschal and Debra Talley as they performed and emulate their facial expressions and hand motions. I sang their music in church and even gave concerts for a couple of years. I felt in my heart that God was calling me to sing, and not just sing--to sing on the big stage, not as a soloist, but in a group. That desire led me to pursue a music degree, with which I graduated in 1991. I also went to the Stamps Baxter School of Music (to get discovered) that summer, and then to the Steve Hurst School of Music the next summer (also to get discovered). During this time, I was giving piano and voice lessons--very dissatisfied, I might add. I couldn't enjoy "the trip," because I kept looking for the destination: the stage. Was my goal a bad goal? Not at all! How could having a goal of spreading the Gospel be bad?! However in 1992, I attended the Steve Hurst School of Music and Travis Cottrell was a teacher that year and he gave a devotion out of MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST. It was the one from July 28th. It made such an impact on my life! I realized for the first time that God was not really all that concerned with my earthly destination (my goal). He was concerned with my trip (the process of getting there). I prayed that night when I got back to my room that God would match my desires to His desires, and the next morning I woke up, content to be a teacher. As a matter of fact, within 2 weeks of the school, my studio grew from 25 to 58, with a waiting list that grew from 5 to 18 within the next year!!! I had been struggling to find students for over a year! Wow! The Lord changed my paradigm concerning future goals that day!! That fall at the National Quartet Convention, I was asked to join the staff at the Steve Hurst School of Music, where I would teach a couple of weeks every summer for the next 10 years.
Here is a copy of the devotion from My Utmost for His Highest that rocked my world!!!!
We tend to think that if Jesus Christ compels us to do something and we are obedient to Him, He will lead us to great success. We should never have the thought that our dreams of success are God’s purpose for us. In fact, His purpose may be exactly the opposite. We have the idea that God is leading us toward a particular end or a desired goal, but He is not. The question of whether or not we arrive at a particular goal is of little importance, and reaching it becomes merely an episode along the way. What we see as only the process of reaching a particular end, God sees as the goal itself.
What is my vision of God’s purpose for me? Whatever it may be, His purpose is for me to depend on Him and on His power
now. If I can stay calm, faithful, and unconfused while in the middle of the turmoil of life, the goal of the purpose of God is being accomplished in me. God is not working toward a particular finish— His purpose is the process itself. What He desires for me is that I see “Him walking on the sea” with no shore, no success, nor goal in sight, but simply having the absolute certainty that everything is all right because I see “Him walking on the sea” (
Mark 6:49). It is the process, not the outcome, that is glorifying to God.
God’s training is for now, not later. His purpose is for this very minute, not for sometime in the future. We have nothing to do with what will follow our obedience, and we are wrong to concern ourselves with it. What people call preparation, God sees as the goal itself.
God’s purpose is to enable me to see that He can walk on the storms of my life right now. If we have a further goal in mind, we are not paying enough attention to the present time. However, if we realize that moment-by-moment obedience is the goal, then each moment as it comes is precious.
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