Knowing Your Purpose

There’s an old joke about a preacher who was stranded on the roof of his church in a flood. As the waters rose higher around him he prayed fervently for God to rescue him. “The Lord will provide,” he told himself.

Soon a boat floated by. The occupants called to the preacher to swim to them. “Don’t worry about me,” he called back, “The Lord will provide”. Reluctantly the people on the boat went on.

The waters rose higher and soon were lapping around the knees of the man of God. Another boat appeared within a few yards of the church rooftop. The rescuers inside called to preacher, and again he replied, “The Lord will provide!” This boat went on, and the preacher prayed even more fervently.

Just as the waters reached the preacher’s chin, a helicopter appeared. It came flying right over the preacher’s head. The rescuers called down to the preacher, but then he clutched his steeple and cried, “Save someone else. The Lord will provide for me!” So the helicopter sat there a few minutes hovering over the preacher and than went off to save more people.

A few minutes after the helicopter left, the waters closed around the preacher’s head, and he drowned. Reaching the gates of heaven, he asked for an immediate audience with the Lord, which was granted. In the divine presence the preacher humbled himself and asked, “Heavenly Father, my work on earth was not yet finished. Why didn’t you save me?” “Good grief”, God replied. “I thought you wanted to come here. I sent you two boats and a helicopter, didn’t I?”

Moral of the Story

You better have your mind made up, so you don’t let any opportunities pass you by. If you don’t know what your purpose is than you better figure that out. You can start by writing down your major objective in life and what your plans are to achieving it. This is the first steps in self discipline. Self discipline is what makes you jump when your boat or helicopter comes by!