Author: Jim Oates

  Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. 2 Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. 3 For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory. (Colossians 3:1-4)

  Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth…Now that’s some good advice. So simple—cuts right through all the baloney in the world and hits the nail, dead on the head. Pauls words above rank near the top of the best advice anybody could ever received. 

What other wise words have you been blessed with to guide you through life? Advice from your pastor, your father, or maybe a coach—Wise words that have stuck by your side like a childhood best friend. We can see from above that great advice doesn’t have to be some extravagant thing: A scientific revelation, some grand theory or idea…No, we usually find that just simple thoughts, those that get straight to the point, are the ones that work best, as we navigate our way in this world.

“It’s not how you start that’s important, but how you finish that counts.” Have you ever heard this advice before? I sure have, my father use to say it a lot. I never asked dad when or where he first received this piece of wisdom, but it was obviously important to him. When my father gave advice it was always short and straight to the point, and wasn’t always, but usually delivered on a playing field. I think athletics is where my dad shinned the most and I loved  hearing his advice as he coached: “Jimmy keep you head up when you’re making a tackle and your head on a swivel, at all times on the field.” His tackling advice turned out to be short lived in my life—The last thing I tackled was a big meal and I don’t particularly remember keeping my head up as I ate. However, “Keep you head on a swivel.” Is advice I still follow every day.

  God has given me many gifts. But, it’s His gift of the talent to build beautiful things that brings me the most joy. I feel extremely blessed to be a carpenter. And as my carpentry skills have grown they’ve enabled me to build a wide range of things. First, furniture and dog houses, then docks and decks, next thing you know I was building houses and then subdivisions, including their water systems and roads. Recently a friend has enticed me with miniature golf courses—What’s gonna be next? 

God has graced me with a uniquely diverse building career and a heart and mind that finds all construction to be incredibly fun, but I think out of all that I build, I like to build Godly people the most. 

Best I can see, I’ve found in construction, things like nails or concrete and wood, show very little emotion. And if they did show emotion, I believe that a nail would be confident enough to not just sit around worrying about getting pounded all day. 

Just like a nail, construction for me has never been an extremely emotional thing. I love it to death, and it brings me great joy, but I don’t stress very much if things don’t go exactly as planned. 

It’s the nature of the beast when you create beautiful things. Variables and unexpected things are going to pop up, and you need to be willing to accept them as part of the game.

But when people get involved it sometimes becomes rough. It’s in these times that it would be best, to have the emotions that I think, concrete would have. My guess is concrete would be confident enough to not worry about getting stomped on it all day.

  When you build a home there often comes a point where things can get emotional—Where the world rears it head. It’s at this point where you and your team, the men who built the house will be challenged for control.

When the homebuyer walks in the house, it’s somewhat like when a designated hitter struts to the plate. The games near it’s end, but now is the time they’re needed the most. During most of the game they both stayed out of sight, now they have some control, and a big stick in their hand. One swing of the stick could bring and end to the game. You  pretty much know that the ballplayers thought is to swing for the fence. However, the homeowners thoughts are harder to figure—sometimes out of nowhere they swing for your head.  

I saw one of my young superintendents sitting in his truck. He was shaking like a leaf, and nearly to tears. One of our new homeowners had just swung their big stick and connected with his head. When people with bad intent swing their stick, it’s as if their trying to say: “Don’t hold your head so high it’s just going to get in my way, I’m in charge now. I’m going to swing at you hard so you better duck, or bow down” 

Boy did this light me up. It was all I could do, to not run to that house and set those animals straight. But, I had been thru this before, so I took some deep breaths and got a hold on myself. 

The memory of us sitting at the side of his car and expressing our thoughts, are as fresh in my mind as if it happened today. He told me about the blow he took to the head. But even confused and enraged he still got it right. He proved to be, the man we all knew him to be, when he got out of that house without a fight. 

I told him:“Never let anyone lord over you. There is only one Lord in charge of your life, and it isn’t them.Their values are theirs and theirs alone, you cannot control what they do or say. Through our faith we know that their stick could never hold any power over you. Jesus took it all…all the hate of the world. Be strong and courageous, we’ve been blessed with this job and we are going to do it right. And always remember, it’s not how you start that’s important, it’s how you finish that counts! Our thoughts are of Heaven—We do it to glorify God and nobody else!” 

I may not have uses those exact words, but those are truths we shared that day.

  We all have a start and a finish, a birth and a death. We have no control in the start—Our birth is totally out of our hands. The finish is different, we have total control of all we do. God created it that way. God gave man dominion over the world and free will to choose which way it would end. Heaven or Hell the choice is in your hands everyday.       

  Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. (Colossians 3:2)

  When I read Paul’s words, it’s as if he also handed me a hammer, so I could drive them into my soul.

“Why am I here—What do I exist?” When your thoughts are on Heaven it all becomes crystal clear. We are here to glorify God in all that we say, and all that we do. But we cannot do it on our own, that’s what Jesus is all about. God sent Jesus to our world because we couldn’t do it ourselves. 

Are you trying to do it without The Bible, without it’s wise advice, without the words from God? If you are, I plead with you today, put down your stick and stomp on your pride. Humble yourself and except the help God has given you to overcome this world.

Today, that young superintendent continues building The Kingdom of God as well as beautiful homes. Through God’s grace, and a heavy dose of his own, he glorified God and took the hit, but didn’t bow to the stick. —Thank you Jesus for witnesses like this.

Thoughts of moments like this in the past, remind us to: Think about the things of Heaven, not the things of earth. (Colossians 3:2) And to, Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. (1 Peter 5:8)        

  Peter has been telling us to swivel our heads for over 2000 years. Before I ever cracked a Bible, God was feeding me it’s words through a coach on a field. My fathers advice passes the test of time and I have verified it in The Bible over and over again. 

I’m in awe of God, and how He works in my life. It’s truly awesome to have someone who  loves you that much. Honor that love, read The Bible and coach yourself with the truths of the Word. 

Directing our focus to think about the things in Heaven is one of the things The Bible does best. The words inside The Bible hold the wisdom to overcome this world, and they provide us the exact advice we’re looking for to help us glorify God in all that we do. 

My Heavenly Father, and my earthly father’s advice is precious to me. Please take my advice and make it precious to you.—Read the Bible!

  For the Lord grants wisdom!
From his mouth come knowledge and understanding. (Proverbs 2:6)

                    “I tell you the Truth”