Some of you knew of this, but last fall, about six months ago, Brenda was in a car accident.  She wasn’t injured, thank you Lord, and I thought you should know that before I went on with the story.  But the car was injured, we have a new car now, but Brenda was okay.  It happened out on Route 19, which can be so busy.  You’re never quite sure how these things happen, it’s so congested, but all of a sudden something happens and there you are.  But the reason I tell you this is that on that day when she had this accident, I was having a fairly busy day (my life has gotten a lot busier since I came to Christ Church).  It was crunch time for my sermon, and there were things going on in the office, and I had lunch plans with another minister.  But when Brenda called on her cell phone, just moments after the accident, when she called, shaken up, in tears, still in the middle of traffic out on this busy road, all that stuff that just had to be done, all those things that were indispensable, all of a sudden all of it could wait.  The office stuff didn’t matter.  My sermon didn’t matter.  The lunch with this other minister didn’t matter (by the way that reminds me, I need to call him back).  When I got her call, the only thing that mattered was Brenda, the only thing I could think about was Brenda, the only thing that was important to me at that moment was getting to Brenda, seeing if Brenda was really okay. 

Do you remember such a time in your own life when you thought you had all this to do, all this stuff that was just so important, but then something happens and it forces you to focus and prioritize, something life and death seemingly comes along, and suddenly you know what matters, you know what you must do. 

Some people seem to be naturally disciplined and focused with their work and with their lives.  Erasmus, the Dutch philosopher from the 16^th century, who apparently struggled with having enough money to survive, Erasmus once wrote, “When I get a little money I buy books: and if any money is left over I buy food and clothes.”  Imagine being so dedicated to, so focused on knowledge, learning, growing intellectually, that you place it above everything else. 

Our current Bishop, Tom Bickerton, once shared an experience he had when he was with a group of ministers, and they stopped at a little diner.  And the waitress looked depressed.  So he asked her, “How are you?”  And her response was, “Well, I’m miserable.”  So he asked her why, and she said it was mostly her job.  For her, it was a deadend.  So the Bishop said, “Well why don’t you just quit?”  And she said, “Well I can’t just quit, I need the money,” and blah, blah, blah, all the reasons, all the things, why she couldn’t quit.  But the Bishop said gently, “But if you’re not happy, what are you doing to yourself over the long haul by staying in this job?”  Well that was the end of the conversation; she went back to place their orders and get their drinks.  Twenty minutes later, there was no food, there were no drinks, there was no waitress.  The Bishop was reluctant to get this waitress in trouble, but eventually he went to talk to the manager.  And the manager apologized about the service, but he said that one of the waitresses had just quit, she’d just walked out, about twenty minutes ago.  She told the manager, “I quit.  I’d stay, but if I’m not happy, what am I doing to myself over the long haul by staying on the job?” 

To have those clarifying moments, to know what you must do, to know what is most important, what matters the most in life.  Perhaps we can begin to understand then these words of St. Paul where he talks about reaching out toward this goal, pressing on to make this one goal his own.  “This one thing I do,” he writes, “Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.”  Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward this goal, this prize.  We don’t know just precisely what this prize is that he’s talking about, scholars tell us.  But one scholar and preacher, Fred Craddock, in his commentary tells us, “What Paul is describing is his consuming desire to know Jesus Christ, to be in Jesus Christ, to have that righteousness which is God’s gift to the one who believes.”  His consuming desire is to know Jesus Christ; I love this comment.  To have that moment of clarity, to know what you must do, to know what is most important, and it is to pursue Jesus with everything you have in you. 

It reminds me just a bit of that poem by Walt Whitman, you’ve heard it before:

Sail forth!  Steer for the deep waters only!

Reckless, O soul, exploring [,]

For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go,

And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all. 

Oh to have that desire to risk the ship, ourselves and all, for the sake of Jesus, to pursue Jesus, to know Jesus.

I’ve given this sermon kind of a strange title, I think: “The Power of Negative Thinking”.  Of course, so often we think of Norman Vincent Peale and “The Power of Positive Thinking”.  I heard about this boy who came home from school one day and said to his father, “Dad, I think I flunked my math test.”  And the father said, “Son, don’t say that, don’t even think that, that’s negative, I’ve told you before, think positive.”  So the boy said, “Okay Dad, I’ll think positive, I’m positive, Dad, I’m positive I flunked that test.” 

I remember too this story about Muhammad Ali.  When he was really flying high as the heavyweight champion of the world years ago, he got on an airplane, and the stewardess said, “Please put on your seatbelt.”  But Muhammad Ali said, “Superman don’t need no seatbelt.”  But the stewardess said, “Superman don’t need no airplane either.  You put on your seatbelt.” 

There is power in thinking that we can do mighty things, that we can do anything, with God’s power in us we can do the impossible.  I love those words of Norman Vincent Peale, “What we steadily, consciously, habitually think we are, that is what we become.”  But I think we have to know our limitations, too.  Sometimes I quote that great theologian, Clint Eastwood, who said in a movie once, “A man’s got to know his limitations.”  You can’t please everybody.  You can’t do everything.  Oh I know some people have such huge plans, they are going to do such great things, they’re going to do everything, please everybody, and mostly, they end up doing nothing, they please nobody, because they can never quite seem to get focused on a single worthwhile project. 

This is what I call the power of “negative” thinking.  Yes, it’s important for you to think positively, to think you can do anything.  But no matter how positively you may think, you may be able to do anything, but you can’t possibly do everything.  To pursue what is the highest and truest and purest and best, you may have to leave something behind, that’s the negative part, you have to leave something behind.  It may mean leaving some of those old destructive habits behind, you’re never going to get anywhere if you try to take along with you your old destructive habits.  It may mean leaving some old ways of thinking behind, some old attitudes, leaving some of the bitterness and anger and disappointment behind, so that you might now press on toward that goal, press on to what Jesus is calling you to do and to be. 

Paul says, “Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead.”  Jesus puts it this way, he says, you have to count the cost, you have to count the cost.  What builder, before he starts to build, won’t count the cost.  What king before he goes into battle, won’t count the cost.  My desire for you, to paraphrase Jesus, is that you give your life for this spiritual journey, you give your life to follow me, you give your life to truly know God.  But you have to count the cost, you have to sit down and determine just what it’s going to cost you, because in this journey toward God you will have to leave some things behind.  You can’t live the same way you did before you met Jesus Christ as you do now that you know Jesus Christ, you have to leave some old questionable, destructive ways of living behind.  The most troubling part of this passage about hating father and mother and wife and children, etc. doesn’t really mean that you should hate them, what it means is that you must put God first, put the love of God first, then these other relationships, your whole life, will more properly fall into place. 

Recently it’s been in the news that the CEO of Starbucks closed every Starbucks store in the country for a few hours in order to retrain all the staffs.  And what they wanted to retrain them to do was how to make coffee, how to sell coffee, how to focus on coffee.  Now you’d think that Starbucks ought to know how to make coffee, but in an interview the CEO said, “We have diversified so much into other good things that we needed to get back to making sure we all know that it’s all about the coffee.”  I think there’s a lesson in here for us.  We as individual Christians, and we as the church, we as Christ Church, need to make sure that we are focused on what is most important, on who is most important.  For us, it’s all about Jesus. 

I heard about this Methodist minister out in San Diego who was called into the sanctuary one day by the custodian.  There had been a strange offering left on the altar.  It was a pair of pants, a belt, a white T-shirt, a pair of boots, and a note that said, “God, Thank you.”  And it was signed, with a phone number.  Well the minister was curious, so he called the number, and a young man, 19 years old, answered and told the minister this story.  He had run away from home, and had wandered in a wasteland of drugs and sordid behavior.  But when he finally hit rock bottom, he found himself in the sanctuary of this church, the doors were open.  And he stayed there all night, crying and praying, asking God to forgive him and show him the way.  All at once God’s presence was very real.  He knew God was there with him, and he felt forgiven.  A wonderful peace came over him as he committed his life to Jesus Christ.  He felt like a new person.  So, strange as it may seem, to symbolize his new life, he went home, got some other clothes, and came back to the church and left the clothes he’d been wearing at the time on the altar, symbolically giving up his old life, and taking on the new life that God was offering him. 

I couldn’t quite figure out how I wanted to end this service.  I thought about giving an altar call, but I was afraid to because of this last story, I thought I might have people up here taking off their clothes and laying them on the altar.  So I just want to ask you to think about it, and pray about it, and search the Scriptures, but find some way to forget what lies behind, leave whatever it is behind that is holding you back, that’s holding us back, and strain forward to what lies ahead, strain forward to what God has in store for you just ahead.