Wild Goose Chase!!

Pastor Chris has a contest on his blog at http://coffeewithchris.com/ entitled "Wild Goose Chase." Whoever has the best story of a wild goose chase that they have experienced will win Mark Batterson’s newest book (releases on 8/19/08) Wild Goose Chase!! There is only one other story posted, and though I think it deserves the win, I'll try it out and post my story.

It has taken a lot of thinking to come to a decision about what I'm chasing, and here's why: All of the "wild goose chases" that I've been on have been either spiritual or emotional. I have a lot of dreams that I ache to start chasing, but I don't know that I've started yet. And I'm always chasing after a more full and deep relationship with God, but that would be so difficult to write about in only one blog. This summer I've also had a "wild goose chase" sort of experience with a relationship with someone in my life, but that is much too personal to write about in a blog post, mostly because of the reason why it's been a Wild Goose Chase!

So, here I sit, still trying to decide what to write about. I've thought about writing about writing about a wild goose chase, but I'm not a good enough writer to make it good enough to win a prize. Here is what I have come up with:

My Life as a Wild Goose Chase

There are some people in this world who know what they want, know how to get it, and go for it. There are other people in this world who don't have any idea what they want, which enables them to have everything they want! And then there are some other people in this world who know exactly what they want, and they may even know how to get it, but they just can't bring themselves to go for it. I am sad to say that this is the category that I fall in to in much of my life.

I have a plethora of dreams. The problem is that I can't reach them... yet. Here are some of them:

• Open and run an orphanage in Mexico
• Get married and (eventually) adopt kids
• Get my masters in Elementary Education
• Work as a Children's Pastor part-time while working as an Assistant Director at a ChildTime full-time
• Be ordained as a Pastor in the Free Methodist Church
• Write curriculum for Children's Ministry
• Write at least one novel
• Write at least one devotional
• Go to Seminary for Counseling
• Become fluent in Spanish
• Sponsor as many children as I can
• Give a Bible to everyone that I know doesn't have one

There are many things on this list that I could be working on right now. For instance, I could be preparing some of the children's ministry curriculum that I have already written for publishing. Or I could be starting one of the stories that has been developing in my head for the past few years. Or I could be practicing Spanish even now, as I'm sitting at home over the summer. And the list doesn't stop there, because there are other things on the list that I left off - things like develop a better relationship with the members in my family, or be a better friend to the people I know from school, or let God's love and joy flow through me every single day wherever I am. These are goals that I have set for myself every single day, and sometimes it feels like a wild goose chase trying to accomplish them, simply because I don't want to take the necessary steps to make them happen.

The fact of the matter is that life for all of us is going to be a wild goose chase if we don't decide what it is that we want and then take action and go for it!! Over and over again in the Bible Jesus talks about taking action. Nothing will happen unless we do something about what we want.

"You miss the forest for the trees! Here I am, standing right before you, and you aren't willing to recieve from me the life you say you want!" ~ John 5:39-40 (The Message)

We need to, I need to, start recognizing the moments when I have the opportunity to chase down a dream. My dreams are far from wild geese, especially with God on my side. I just have to see them as standing right before me waiting for me to catch them.