Running Your Road of Purpose

By Sheila Thatcher

At a time when I was talking with some new believers in Christ during a Bible study, their big statement and question was I need direction in life and How do you know your purpose in life? Wow! That is a big question, and one that takes prayer, study, and reflection to answer for each individual. It was also just what the Lord used to inspire me to write this book! As I searched for resources that helped someone answer that question in life, I found there was not one single available resource in one Bible study on the subject. Therefore, with the help of the Lord, godly counsel and several resources, this Bible study was created to help someone from the point of questioning what life is all about to seeing them through in taking their last step across the finish line from this earth into their heavenly home with their maker! May you discover your divine road of purpose and enjoy it every step in faith in He who loves you and travels with you all the way into divine eternal life!

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jan 16, 2017
• ISBN: 9781512770766

Sheila Thatcher

Hi! So you want to know a little bit about me. I am assuming that because you are here, and I am glad you are! I’m country at heart, and I live in Idaho, a state within the United States of America. I am a native to this place here, with a grown daughter who is married and is a nurse in Tucson with a grand puppy (Welsh Corgi) and married to my awesome son-in-law, who is an amazing cook and a computer genius! I have been involved in outreach ministry with a heart for encouraging people with the wisdom, love, grace, and power of Jesus for about thirty years to a wide variety of people, including women’s and men’s ministry, children’s ministry, a wide spectrum of sports, military families, and leaders. I sooo love people! I get excited about life coaching and sharing God’s Word! My past experience has found me working as an executive assistant for a worldwide 501 © 3 non-profit ministry, many years of church event planning, controller for the local Chamber of Commerce, doing bookkeeping, banking, sales marketing, being a certified Three-Dimensional FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) coach, and hands-on just helping people do life! I am excited about Jesus and love sharing about Him every opportunity I can! He so rocks, and He is my everything! Writing is a great love of mine, and when I am not writing and working, I love horseback riding, being in the outdoors, especially around and on the water, playing golf, and hosting gatherings of people! Life is a fun adventure and a gift, and I am thankful to share my love and excitement for the King with you as I ponder the heart of Jesus where His Spirit leads here! Thanks for joining me! It’s going to be fun as we run the road of divine life purpose together as Christ’s kingdom family!

Book preview

Copyright © 2017 Sheila Thatcher.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.westbowpress.com

1 [phone]

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-5127-7077-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-7078-0 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-7076-6 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016921637

WestBow Press rev. date: 1/16/2017

CONTENTS

Part 1:   Finding The Road Home

Introduction: Off on the Wrong Road

At the Crossroad—Which Road Do I Choose?

Part 2:   Traveling The Cross Road Home

Equipped with My Own GPS

Choosing the Best Mode of Travel

Part 3:   Preparing To Run

Getting Healthy

Training for the Marathon

Part 4:   Running With The Crowd

Traveling Common Ground

The Greatest Command

Loving Your Neighbor as Yourself

The New Command

The Great Commission

Part 5:   Running My Own Road

What Makes Me Different from Other Runners?

Hearing God Personally

A Unique Athlete

Special Circumstances

Keeping the Proper Pace and Balance

Power for Victory

Focusing on the Finish Line

Part 6:   Reaching Home

Meeting Your Maker

Getting the Prize

Your New Home

Special thanks to my Savior for His guidance in helping me find my true purpose in life. Thank you to all those who stepped out in faithfulness to be His vessels through whom He worked to bring me where I am today. They were brought into my life for divine reasons!

Dedicated to my dear friends at Riding High Ministries who inspire me to run my divine road of purpose.

Part 1

FINDING THE ROAD HOME

INTRODUCTION

Off on the Wrong Road

As soon as I poke the needle down into the right bottom corner of this square and pull it until the thread lays flat across the square diagonally, it will form a perfect X. Next, I can move on to the next square and repeat. This cross-stitched towel will be beautiful when all the X’s are completed in various colors. It will look great on a cupboard or the bathroom counter. Maybe I should make one for a gift for someone. I always need to come up with ideas for gift-giving! I would love to receive a cross-stitched towel. Oh, wouldn’t it be pretty if you could put a mat around the cross-stitched part, put it in a lovely frame, and use it for wall art? Where could I hang it? There are many possibilities. I can’t wait to finish this. I just want to keep on stitching until it is done! Larry is driving and listening to his music. Lydia is content. I am so glad I have time to work on this sewing.

This was the mindset I had as my family and I were traveling back from a road trip that took us from our home in Idaho to Disney World in Orlando, Florida with our daughter Lydia, age three at the time. We were all excited for this family vacation. We had anticipated it for weeks! It was the first time that I had ever ventured to the eastern half of the United States. I was born, raised, married, and settled in the same area of Idaho. Idaho was home to me, and although I had traveled to some western states around Idaho, I had never ventured farther east than Wyoming. I was excited to take the trip and scared at the same time, knowing I was venturing into unknown territory.

We were traveling in our GMC truck and pulling our thirty-one-foot Airstream travel trailer that had been our blessed abode while on this great adventure. We were on the home stretch and traveling through the state of Colorado. We knew there was a turn we would need to make to put us onto the appropriate road home, but at that point, we were all content in our own worlds. As time went on, we began to climb one of the highest summits in the United States. Pulling our 6,200-pound trailer took a considerable amount of energy and time. Not stopping to marvel at sights, we pushed onward and soon found ourselves on top, taking in the view of a vintage train engine and its passenger cars that had just mastered the feat of climbing up the same steep grade we had just traveled.

Glad to have the pass behind us, my husband asked me (the navigator who had been given instructions to find the right road) about the turn that we needed to take to get us home. I put down my needlework and pulled out the map. As I studied it, I suddenly began to feel sick inside. Oh, no! How can I tell my husband that the turn we should have taken is back on the other side of the huge summit we just went over? It was too late! We had missed it because I was absorbed in my sewing and not focused on the most important task of keeping us on the right road. I wanted to cry. I did not want to face my husband and tell him I had let him down. I wanted out of that truck! However, there was no way out. I had to tell him!

Trembling internally, I told him the bad news. One hour later, we were back on top of the summit. And the huge plume of steam pouring out of the stack on the historic black steam-powered locomotive that we had passed earlier was not the only steam on top of that pass that day! We stopped on top to admire the train and clean off the cow manure that had splattered all over our truck and trailer as we followed a vehicle full of cattle back up the pass.

Years later, when we talked about this story, I always reminded my husband that if we had not missed our turn, we would have missed out on seeing that gorgeous old train - a nostalgic look back to travel as it was over one hundred years ago when this very coal-fired train crossed the tracks, moving sojourners made up of cowboys, miners, and settlers of the Old West to their destinations. Somehow, that thought seems to soothe my pain of failure a little. Fortunately, he continued to love me and decided to extend me grace. I have always disliked the job of being a navigator via map reading. It is one that I was grateful to relinquish to anyone who wanted the job! God must have known and saw that many lives could be saved some grief if He could give someone the idea and talents to develop a global positioning system (GPS). I am thankful someone was listening and developed such a gift to us all.

Now when we travel, we put into the GPS where we are and where we want to go, and it shows us the route to take. It shows us our present location on that route and where our next change will be. It can even speak audibly at the point you need to be informed of the next exit or turn. Talk about relieving pressure—and you can pass the blame onto the computer if it ever messes up. Its feelings don’t get hurt! Praise God! Technology just keeps getting better and better. I was also very relieved when the seatbelt nagger became a feature in automobiles to remind loved ones to buckle up for safety.

As I thought about this mountaintop experience almost thirty years before, I was amazed at the spiritual lesson in it that God revealed to me. Ladies don’t like to divulge their age, so I’ll say that in my secretive number of years, I have struggled to discover the right road for my life. Because of lack of direction and self-absorption at times in my past, I found myself on the wrong road in my personal life. I made choices that led to undesirable consequences. As a result, I experienced grief that wasn’t necessary had I been properly focused on the right road. The time and energy wasted going down the wrong roads could have certainly been better spent.

Despite my mistakes, I’m still alive, and I have learned from those experiences. Often I have been able to (and hope to again) use them to help others so that they don’t make the same mistakes that I did. Good came from those adventures, like the old steam engine that I was able to see because I made those mistakes. Everyone is always in a state of learning—that is for sure! Having learned the hard way (in the school of hard knocks), my love for God and others motivates me to help others see life’s path more clearly.

At a Bible study, a woman told me that she needed direction in her life. Others have also told me that they wished they knew their purpose in life—which roads to take. This study is dedicated to them. Dear God, please create this work and use it to bless them and countless others. May You be lifted high through it. Amen.

At the Crossroad—Which Road Do I Choose?

One thing is true: life is full of roads that a person can choose to follow. A person hopes that the road chosen will not lead to regrets, that it will bring success, joy, and survival at the end. But how does one choose the right road without knowledge, advice, or a guide? It seems everyone is on a journey in life, just like my family was in the former story. Everyone wants to find a hoped-for home—a final stopping point, a life after travel that we all know will eventually come to an end.

We have seen it happen to others. A GMC truck runs out of fuel, parts wear out and quit working; and the same is true of our bodies that grow old and become lifeless. Where will the life that was in them go? Where did it come from? These are important questions to ponder, so let’s go there! The big bang theory says there was a large explosion in space, and out of that, the earth and all that exists in it came about. Some believe that life evolved to what it is today—that humans, for example, evolved from monkeys. However, the scientific evidence that supports these two theories pales in comparison to the supporting evidence of life that was created by a greater intelligence, a supreme being, a higher power, or God.

A great book entitled In the Beginning by Walter T. Brown, Jr. details the scientific evidence that explores these theories. If you have questions, research them. Don’t allow questions to go unanswered, as death can happen in an instant, and you will find yourself somewhere. Make sure you know where you are going so that there are no regrets at the end of the road you are on!

When we look at this earth, it is obvious that great intelligence created it. How could it have just happened? It is far too perfect in design and the way in which life is sustained to say it just happened coincidentally without a causal reasoning. It seems obvious that there is a grand plan. If that is the case, who is this God that is talked about, and how do you find Him? Does He have a plan for you and me? Is there a specific road we need to travel?

Many people say that all roads lead to God. I believe this is true, in that we will all stand vulnerable to the scrutiny or judgment of our Maker someday. This thought leaves some critical questions that beg further searching too. When I stand before the scrutiny or judgment of God, will I have a good relationship with