My New Favorite Word

I've been informed by several people recently that my new favorite word is "trajectory". Apparently, I'm using it a lot. I can't help it. There's a lot of power in the understanding of trajectory.

A few months ago I was hanging out with a good friend at Starbucks. My friend was telling me about how unhappy he was with his life. His marriage was great, his kids were doing very well, he had a good job, but something was missing. He couldn't put his finger on it, but he felt like he wasn't fully alive. What was missing?We've had this conversation a couple of times. I love my boy, but I finally decided to go a little hard core on him. I asked him two questions. First, what had God designed him to do with his life? I know he's wrestled with this and had been slow in going public with his divine design. But this time we had the conversation something was different. Without missing a beat he told me that God had designed him to be a church leader, what we would call a "pastor". Great, so now we both know what God's ministry destination is for my friend. My second question was a little tougher to answer. I asked my friend to tell me about his current trajectory to reach this destination. This stumbled him. After a few awkward attempts to answer the question he came clean. God had shown him where to go, but he was not doing anything to arrive. His trajectory was leading him in a different direction. No wonder he wasn't feeling fully alive.

This idea of trajectory has become personally important to me. My divine design is to help churches get started and established. When you arrive in a new city, you are very, very far away from achieving the goal. But, the key is to know your trajectory to reach the goal. What do you do on the first day to propel you down the right road? How about after your first major setback? The key is knowing where God wants you to end up and what you can do today to help get there. Sounds simple...but that's about all you can do.

Biblically, there are many examples of the importance of divine trajectory. The one that comes to mind first is the historic account of Abraham in Genesis 12. God told Abraham that he would be the leader of a vast nation that would be a blessing to all nations. Abraham wasn't anywhere close to seeing this as a viable reality. But, divine trajectory required him to leave his home and everything he knew. The Bible says, "so he left, as God had told him". He knew where God wanted him to be, now he had to shove off and live to get there. Maybe you're struggling with the present reality of your life. Let me ask you the same to questions I asked my friend. 1) What's the divine design for your life? 2) Is your current trajectory carrying you there?