A Short Timer's Attitude

This is really an awesome time of the year isn’t it? I love the weather, being able to do yard work, ball games, and cook outs. Children all over the nation also love this time of year as the school year is coming to a close. Parents, teachers, coaches, and anyone that is around kids this time of the year will tell you that the children’s attitudes change.

They have what I refer to as “A Short Timers Attitude”. They know the year is almost up and they feel as if they have finally made it and all they can think about is getting out of school and enjoying the summer months. They are done with trying to do their school work, there are tired of listening to the teacher, and they are finished with trying. They may have started the school year off great and strong, focused and determined to have the best year ever. To make awesome grades and to make their mark in the school but unfortunately many, many students catch the “Short Timers Attitude”.

I have seen this over and over again throughout my life. I can remember seeing the Short Timers Attitude in soldiers as well. You could always tell when a soldier was getting close to his ETS date, (the date when his tour of duty was over). They would skip PT formations and when they were there for PT, they would barely do anything. They would go through the motions and wouldn’t put forth much effort. You could also notice their Short Timers Attitude with their work performance. Lazy and half done with most of their duties, they felt that they had served and their tour was over. No longer did they have to do the work, they were going home, and they had been there and done that. They were ready for a break from service.

The truth is, they stopped being soldiers long before their release from service.

The question this morning for each of us is: Have we gotten a Short Timers Attitude with our service to God? Have we gotten to the point in our Christian walk where we feel like we have done our part, we have been there and done that, we have been schooled and have made the grade, we know all thee is to know and now we are skating by with no desire, with no drive to be better servant for Christ.

We have an attitude of a short timer. We believe we have arrived and we no longer feel that we need to push ourselves. We no longer have to read the Bible every day; we no longer have to show up to church each week, we don’t even have to pray before our meals anymore because we are above all of that now. We know God Loves us, He knows we Love Him, and we know we are going to Heaven.

We have no goals as far as our Spiritual Maturity goes. Our only clear goals set before us was to Accept Jesus and to receive Salvation.

This is the big reason why so many believers are unmotivated in their walk with Jesus. If you want your relationship with Jesus to be motivating, if you want to get rid of that short timers attitude and make progress then you must set goals.

But what are some of the goals we need to set for our lives in order to move forward in our walk of faith? As we look at life of Paul this morning, he gives us a good place to start.

7But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 10I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

12Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.