Set the bar high!
By Erik Farstad
Where have you set your bar? We all live our lives trying to achieve a certain mark or to reach a bar of achievement. You may be striving for wealth, fame or fortune. Perhaps you desire world peace, world dominance or want to run away from the world. All of us are moving somewhere, towards something, whether we realize it or not.
So where is your bar and what is there if you achieve it? I mentioned wealth, fame, domination, peace, etc. So what will it be? If you are like most people, and if you’re honest with yourself, you don’t know where you are going. Don’t believe me. OK, ask just three people what they are striving for or where they have placed their bar of achievement. If you are one of those that are left wondering, you have two choices. One, you can set your bar by the worlds standards. Or two, set your bar following the standards of God. The world says strive for personal happiness, no matter what it takes. Your happiness is the most important thing! That is the motto, but is striving for "things" where true happiness lies? Will you die still searching for that one more thing that will fulfill your happiness? Or will you listen to the words of the creator himself, God, who says that He is the way, the truth and the life. Think about it! Way-truth-life…to me that sounds like the happiness the world says to seek!
I know you all desire this happiness but you’re up against some tough things that are pulling you this way and that. There seems to be no standard anymore. It may seem hard to know what to believe, who to listen to or where to go. In today’s society we are faced with the death of truth, the slipping away of morality and the demise of righteousness. This tearing down of such important aspects of personal living guidelines is very dangerous. When our school children are told how to put on condoms, we are lowering the bar. When truth doesn’t matter anymore, we are lowering the bar. When discipline doesn’t happen, we are lowering the bar. It’s quite simple people, when the bar is lowered our standards of living are also!
You can change this trend, but it will take work. You will need to NOT listen to what is popular, but rather seek what God says. You may have to change your activities or associations. You will have to fight against what the popular media says is the standard. You will have people saying you are "out of touch" or "old fashioned." Let me ask you something. Would you rather be with the masses who are wondering around lost, changing direction almost on a daily basis or strive for the highest bar of righteousness that goes straight up?
Setting the bar high means being honest, standing against immorality and loving in-spite of the unlovely acts. Setting the bar low means acting in-spite of truths, being tolerant of immorality and approving of the unlovely acts. I can’t tell you the "high bar specifics," but urge you to seek God for them. I can’t tell you how to live your life, but plead with you to follow the life of Jesus Christ. I can’t tell you change will come easy, but promise you that with God all is possible. I can tell you that setting the bar high on God’s standards will lead to heaven's gates. But not setting your bar is the scariest of all. For if you do not strive for the high bar of heaven, you will miss the best gift of all…eternal salvation.
The first step to setting your bar high is accepting God’s son Jesus Christ into your heart and life. If you’ve already claimed Jesus as your Lord and Savior you’ve made the first step on setting your bar high. If you haven’t it’s not too late. Just pray right now to accept Jesus into your heart. Pray and ask Him to come into your life, to clean you of your sins, claiming the gift of salvation. If you’ve just done that, than you too have just begun to set your bar high!
Don’t be one of the masses that don’t know where they are going. Set your bar high!
In Christ, Erik