But wait, you don’t answer an either/or question in the affirmative or the negative.  That’s right, but some of life’s deepest issues aren’t either/or questions.  Few of us are totally pro-active or totally reactive.

 It is likely that most of us spend too much of our lives in the reactive mode.  By refusing to attempt to anticipate important issues and choose ahead of time how we will respond to them (being pro-active), we abdicate the direction of our life path to responding to what happens to us.

Acknowledging our failure to be more pro-active is an important first step to change, but by itself it produces no increase in living an actively chosen, purpose-directed life.  How can we become more pro-active?

The congregation where John Magnuson ministers has been working through a process to accomplish this.  He’s shared some things with me that I think are worthy of considering for our individual lives, our families, our businesses, and our church life.

Their process entails identifying your purpose, mission, core values, strategy, vision and priorities.  To identify each of these you have to answer the following questions:

Purpose—Why do I/we exist?

Mission—What would God have me/us do?

Core Values—What do I/we believe is important?

Strategy—How will I/we accomplish my/our mission?

Vision—What will I/we look like?

Priorities—What must I/we do to reach the vision?

            Working through each question for your individual life will have a significant impact.  It will help you choose which way to go when numerous forks in the road arrive.  Your family, business and our church can benefit by answering those questions too.

John Kenneth King