I recently heard someone say, “If you don’t measure it, you don’t care about it.” Whatever ‘it’ is, he is totally right. The new year always evokes change in people. But because this is not only a new year, but a new decade, it has us writing goals and making adjustments to our life; spiritually, physically, financially, emotionally, and so on. A few weeks ago I shared a quote I heard from Toby Mac. He said, “if you are not changing it, you are choosing it.” there is that ‘it’ again.
Let’s talk about physical goals for a minute. If you don’t know how much you weigh, how are you going to know if you are making progress? If you don’t know how big your arms are when you start lifting weights, how can you celebrate the win? I know you can see the results eventually, but isn’t it more fun to celebrate your achievements from where you started? I love to step on the scale after a week and see that I have lost 5 pounds. I need to lose 20 pounds, but how rewarding is it to celebrate the 5 and then be motivated to do the next 15? We measure so that we can celebrate us changing the situation, not choosing it.
Financially, you need to know what you have coming in so you can make a budget based on your measurement. Whether that measurement is small or large, you set goals on saving, giving, etc.
Spiritually, I need to measure the time I spend with God. I heard a guy say that the hallmark of discipleship is discipline. If I do not take time to spend reading the Bible and continuously putting God first in life, I, like everyone else, will fall back into the worries of this world and be defeated by the enemy.
In your ministry or business, you have to have something to measure. If you don’t, how can you get anyone to join you or partner with you if you can’t measure your accomplishments. No one wants to be a part of a ministry that can’t show results.
Why do we at First Priority bug you so much for your numbers? Because we want you and everybody else to celebrate the win that God gives us. I heard someone ask a campus ministry guy how many schools his ministry was in, and he said, “I don’t know, the Lord is just doing incredible things, and we can’t keep up.” What? Are you kidding me? My first thought was, man, I would never give that guy a dime of money or a minute of my attention. He told me loud and clear that he does not think being on the school campus is important even though that’s what his vision statement says! I know in the ministry world we like to say, if just one person gives their life to Christ, it was worth it, and I agree, but God also wrote a whole book on Numbers.
Hey, in this new year, this new decade, let’s make sure we measure so we can celebrate the win with God.
