GOOGOL

Sometimes when you have the opportunity to pick any number, the number you pick matters.

That's why, when some Stanford University graduate students back in 1998 decided to pick a number they picked the one science had termed a 'googol' -- a 1 followed by 100 zeroes.

It was the amount of information they dreamed of cataloguing for their new internet search engine.  To keep the dream in front of them they named their company Google.  Today there are more than a hundred million searches thru Google every day, accessing billions of pages in 100 languages.

The difference was in the number they picked.  The difference was their vision.  It was their passion for the dream.  They decided to make it a big dream.

What would happen if we picked a big number related to God?  What would that number even be?  I don't know for sure -- I only know it would be beyond what we could imagine.

In 2 Kings, the prophet Elisha is suffering from an illness.  It seems the end might be near.  The king realizes the prophet has been the key to Israel's blessing and favor.  He knows that without Elisha, future success might be unlikely.

Elisha gives the king an opportunity for a final blessing.  He tells the king to get a bow and some arrows.  He tells him to open the window and shoot the arrow.  'It is the Lord's arrow of victory,' Elisha says.

Then Elisha instructs, 'Take the arrows and strike the ground,' meaning the king was to take the remaining arrows and hit the ground with them.

He was telling the king that what God would do would be linked to what the king would do.

So the king took three arrows and hit the ground with them.  But Elisha became angry at that and told the king he should have struck the ground many more times, not just three, because God would have completely destroyed the enemy thru them if he had.  As it was, they would only defeat their enemy three times.

Convicting story.

The king was given an opportunity to be part of God's great work.  God was ready to go.  But it broke down in the number he picked.  Three.

It was the size of his vision that broke down.  Striking the ground only three times, the king revealed his passion for the task was moderate at best.  Rather than using everything at his fingertips, he showed a lack of passion and zeal for what God wanted to do thru him.

'It's imagining a different future.'

Vision is about resolve.  It's about refusing to be satisfied with the way things are.  It's imagining a different future.

Are we content with the great place God has brought us in 2015?  Or is there more for us?

There is more.  God calls the church to have a God-sized vision with all our arrows shot.

And be blessed.