I was always a mediocre athlete. GS - one of the last 5-7 to be picked. HS - good enough to sit on the bench. College - CYC soccer - held my own and indoor - became good. But all those years had an effect on me. I never expected to win. I never expected much so that when much didn't happen, I was not disappointed. (Even with the Rams, I don't want to expect much.)

Don't you and I know people like this? Those who don't expect much. Those who say, "don't put yourself out there, don't presume that much will happen." Combine that with a little catholic piety about humility, and you have a bar that is not very high, sights that are easily attained and not very worth the celebrating. (Like giving out ribbons for being able to tell your left from right hand in just two tries...) I coached soccer for a few years, and the only prayer I uttered that first year was "Lord, that we have a fun year and that no one gets hurt." I never prayed that we might win, for coming from a one and 20 season the year before, I did not set my sights high at all.

Into that experience, like a trumpet call, comes the voice of the prophet Isaiah one of the four servant songs: "It is too little for you to be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob. I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth."

And I find myself wondering how that servant felt, and if he got as big a lump in his throat as I get in my mine when I hear that: "It is too little, it is too little..." Set your sights higher - for I call you not just to preach to the choir, but to those who never set foot in church. I call you, not just to your own circle of friends, but to a much wider community.

  How high do you set your sights? What do you believe about what God wants to do with your life? For God wants you and I to be a saints, and we're happy with not being juvenile delinquents. God wants daily intimacy with us, and we want a 5-minute phone conversation. God desires for us to proclaim nothing less than the kingdom of heaven in all that entails, and we just want to be a nice person. And so it goes...

I find myself struggling with this at the Newman Center. I can see small plans, but not always the big picture. In our fundraising appeal which you all prayed for - I was hoping maybe 2-3 thousand dollars. I would have been thrilled with that. It looks like we will net 3 times that much. Which is an amazing result - for which I am grateful to God and to your prayers for its success. But then that raises a whole different set of problems. If I can raise funds in that manner, then what will I do with them? I need to expand my vision of what we can do for the kingdom with that funding... It is too little, says the Lord, just to get the Newman House up and running - I need you to do more...

How high do you set your sights? Because you, like the servant of Isaiah, are called to be light to the world, that God's salvation be known. Just as John came to testify, so must you and I - in places far beyond our comfort zone... As we pray this week, I pray for the courage of the servant of Israel to allow my sights to be set higher. I pray for the vision to dream wider dreams, bigger dreams. And I pray for the willingness to step outside my comfort zone, to the place where God would have me be...