We sometimes miss life’s real meaning and purpose. A story of a woman who’s driving a car and she picks up an elderly woman hitchhiker. They’re driving along and the elderly woman notices next to the woman driver a brown bag.

And the woman hitchhiker asks the woman driving, she says, “Ah, what’s in the brown bag?”

The woman driving says, “Oh, in the bag is a bottle of wine. I got it for my husband.”

And the woman hitchhiker says, “Nice trade.”

[laughter]

Again, how many times have we missed the point? Life asks many questions of us that at times we don’t have the answers. With the help and grace of God through faith we can achieve great things for God.

Listen to this following story: on the very first day of school the teacher was given a roster of students for her new class. Near the students’ name was a number, such as 154 – 136 – 142 and so on and so on. The teacher was incredibly impressed.

She thought to herself,  ‘Look at these IQ scores. What a terrific class this is going to be this year.’

So she immediately determined to work harder than ever with this class than any other class she ever had. And sure enough throughout the entire year she came up with innovative lessons that she would challenge the students, not wanting to bore them with the work that was much too easy for them with such high IQ scores. And the class responded, outperforming every class she ever had.

At the end of the school year the principal commended the teacher on what she had accomplished with her students that year. “Thank you, but,” the teacher said, “how could I miss with IQ scores of my students like that.”

“What IQ scores?” asked the principal.

“The IQ scores that were included on my class roster next to their name.” she said, pointing to the class list.

And the principal said, “Those are not their IQ scores,” the principal explained, “those are their locker numbers.”

[laughter]

With faith in Jesus we can achieve great things and soar to new heights. The many times we lack faith, persistence and instead we procrastinate.

Listen to this woman’s story:

First I was dying to finish high school and start college. Then I was dying to finish college and start working. Then I was dying for the children to grow old enough to attend school so I could return to work. Then I was dying to retire. And now, I am dying and suddenly I realize I forgot to live each day. Maybe we take each day, one day at a time and live life rooted in God and for God through faith.