by Warren Baldwin

Wes and I were involved in the baseball program in Cody, Wyo., with a boy whose goal is was to make it to major league baseball. He is playing college ball right now. In fact, you might have seen him on TV recently as the catcher for SMS in the college playoffs. He was an outstanding player as a kid, involved at all levels of our community program. Later, while still in high school, a coach told him, "Kid, you are good. But, if you want to go big time, you will have to go to some place with more of a population. You need to test your skills against better players." This young man had family in the Denver area, so with the blessings of his parents, he packed his bags and went to live in Colorado. Oh, one more thing ... he was recently chosen by the NY Mets.

Goals. One definition the dictionary provides for goals is "the terminal point of a race." If you’ve ever run track you know that "terminal point" is the ribbon stretching across the track. We call that "the goal line." The terminal point.

Do you have any terminal points in life? I state this in the plural because I actually have several goals. I have educational goals, financial goals, family goals.

For example, one goal I want to achieve with my family is to tour the New England states before my children grow up and leave home. These are all, in a sense, terminal points for me, ribbons stretched out there somewhere in my future. I have my eyes on them. I’m racing toward them. And someday I’ll achieve them.

But one thing is most definite: I will never achieve any of them unless they are indeed terminal points set for me to reach.

We rarely stumble into success.

We don’t stumble into retirement financially set -- we have to prepare for it.

We never stumble into educational accomplishment. If you want that degree, you have to make it a goal and work toward it.

And, I will never stumble into Maine with my family. As far as that is away from here, we will have to plan for it.

Terminal points.

But, I have one terminal point, one goal, that overrides all the others. Every other goal must play second fiddle to this one. Every other goal must in someway further me along the track toward this ribbon. You know what I am speaking of: Heaven.

Jesus set heaven as a goal for his disciples. Before he left them he said, "In my Fathers house are many rooms ... I am going there to prepare a place for you." John 14:2. A goal. A terminal point.

I don’t believe I will stumble into heaven anymore than I will stumble into the state of Maine. I have to set my sights on it, plan for it, and live for it. I hope you will do that, too. It gives us something to live for. A terminal point.