Just Do it Crossroad Community Church

Hi this is pastor Ken and these are my thoughts on a Thursday…Just Do It
This slogan used by the Nike footwear company for many years was a very successful ad campaign. These three simple words sold a lot of shoes over the years. Why? Perhaps it was because most of us carry in our hearts and minds dreams of things we would like to do. Nike was able to use the presence of some of those dreams, and the often accompanying thought that we just don’t have what we need to make those dreams come true, to increase their sales. If you had a dream…and bought their shoes…you could ‘Just Do It’.
I am a bit of a woodworker and have built many pieces of furniture over the years, in fact as I have mentioned in past podcasts I actually did that as my vocation for a while. Though that business has been closed for many years now, I still carry the dream of building something I never have before…Windsor chairs. In preparation for the undertaking I did what I often do…I went to YouTube University. There I became familiar with one of the premier Windsor chair makers in America today. He is a gentleman by the name of Curtis Buchanan. Curtis has graciously documented on video every step of making a chair from choosing the trees all the way to applying the milk paint finish and lacquer. He not only describes the necessary actions one must take to build a chair, he also talks about other topics of interest to him as he instructs how to duplicate his craft. He is self-taught, and yet viewed as one of the best chair makers in the industry. During an interview I watched he was asked, “How did you go from being self-taught to being one of the most well-known chair makers of our time. His answer was simple, yet profound. In his southern drawl he said, “I don’t know if I am…but if it’s true I guess it’s just because I kept at it the longest”. In other words, Curtis didn’t let anything stop him…he just did it.
We all have dreams in our hearts and minds. I’m not talking about me making Windsor chairs or some young kid dreaming of being the next star running back in the NFL. I’m talking about those dreams of ministry, those dreams of ways you and I can love people. Some of those dreams are big ones and will require many resources to accomplish, some of them smaller in scope, but still requiring investment to make them come true. What makes some people able to realize their dreams while others never get past the drawing board? I know this…It’s not the shoes.
I think what differentiates those who see dreams fulfilled from those who don’t is ownership. Who owns the dream? Is it in your heart and mind because it is yours? If so, you need to find all of the resources to make it happen. You are responsible for setting all of the necessary steps in motion to see it come to pass. If I want to build that chair, I need to attain the knowledge, I need to buy the tools, I need to collect the wood, I need to dedicate the time and effort, I need to solve any problems that arise. If I do all of those things and stick with it as Curtis Buchanan suggests, then I can build my very own hand crafted Windsor chair. However, if I am not the owner of the dream, most of those aforementioned steps are someone else’s responsibility. So, if the dream’s author and owner is God’s Holy Spirit then all of that is on Him. I only have to…Just do it!
Pastor Rick says often, “If God has said it, it’s like money in the bank.” What he means is that if God puts a dream in your heart, on your mind, of a way to love others…Just Do It. God doesn’t ever simply drop a dream into our minds and then leave the logistics up to us…He has already made the preparations, all He needs from us is to…Just do it! Ephesians 2:8-10 in the New King James Version read as follows: 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship,