Early this week on my day off I was doing what every husband of a wife 7 months pregnant does…whatever i’m told! For this afternoon it was shopping. After a rather flustered shop I was leaving when I saw a family from church that I hadn’t seen for a few weeks. There in that parking lot I was faced with the ‘Walk or Talk’ scenario. The family hadn’t seen me yet and I’d be lieing if I told you my first reaction was anything but to hide! Don’t judge I know you have hidden from someone at the shops before. I resisted my urge and walked straight up to them asking how they were. After only a 2 minute conversation they were elated to have seen me and I am sure will be back in church because of it.

The question I face repeatedly and the one I ask you is will you walk or will you talk? Understandably we can’t always have an hour long convo in the parking lot, if we did our kids would be ignored, but you can stop, say hi, and add value to the lives of others!

A quote can inspire you when you feel like giving up, bring hope when all hope seems lost and enable you to dig down inside yourself and find that extra something that is required to be the person who know you are called to be.

My favourite quote and the one I want to share with you today is this:

“Do today what others won’t, so you can do tomorrow what others can’t”

For some unknown reason God has always done things in my life quickly.

• Age 10 – I knew I was called to ministry
• Age 18 – I moved interstate to study at Hillsong International Leadership College
• Age 20 – I became a Pastor (This to me now seems insane as I only turned 20 one month before I came on staff, praise God for Senior Pastors who trust the next generation)
• Age 21 – Got married to the love of my life!
• Age 23 – Had our first little girl, Mikayla
• Now at 24 my wife and I are 3 months pregnant with our 2nd bundle of joy.

I know that many of you would be saying, “Wow, thats nice, I wish God would move along things in my life” but the reality is that when God blesses you by either giving you a wife or a position on staff or whatever it is, it will come with a new level of sacrifice.

For me, when I think about my life I know what I want it to look like in 20 years. I know God has called me to preach the gospel to the nations, Pastor many people, lead teams of leaders and grow His Church to the point where the world cannot ignore it. That’s big stuff which requires big sacrifice from me now.

Whenever I say no to a social event because it’s over the weekend, miss a sporting game due to church, have another night out because of a leadership training or whatever the sacrifice may be I know I can do it because in the long run if I do today what others wont, I can do tomorrow what others cant. I plan on living a big life and to do so will take sacrifice bigger then other but I know above all else that it is ALL WORTH IT!!!!

The other night I was going for my run while listening to Hillsong United praise and worship. The music alone took my mind off the pain for the first 3 or 4km but as I came to the final 1km of my run the pain was building up and I had the urge to slow down to a slow jog…almost walk. At that moment something powerful happened that gave me a second strength. A man started jogging on the opposite side of the road to me but traveling in the same direction. Where my legs previously felt like jelly, they suddenly were revived as the competition of not letting him get too far ahead of me began. If I ever needed confirmation that I was a competitive person then this was it. I did my 5km run in only 26 minutes which was a quick time for me.

As I got home, heaving and out of breath, I got thinking about how simply seeing someone else running inspired me…I didnt get discouraged when he finally did outrun me because it was obvious that he was at a different point in his journey then me, but he did inspire me.

In the same way when it comes to our personal run in life, the race we have been called to live, we can at times get tired and heavy and it is at these times that it can help to connect with others to inspire us. Lift your head and see that others are running too, don’t get discouraged if they are at a different place then you but be inspired that you can run hard! You can keep going in what God has called you to do.

The people in life that inspire me the most are those who have been running their race for a long time, who have kept persevering through it all and are still going strong.

I want to be one of those people also and it is for that reason that I have committed to running hard in ministry for the rest of my life, pacing myself so I’m here at the end but running hard none the less. The purpose of this blog is to encourage you to do the same, to get passionate about what you do and to be inspired that you can do it…you can live your dreams and run your race well.