It is Super Bowl Week so how about some HALFTIME ADJUSTMENTS

Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; Philippians 3:12-13

(Some of the information is adapted from Halftime by Bob Buford)
One of the marks of success in a football team is the ability to change their game plan as needed at half time. Great teams make good halftime adjustments; they may perform poorly in the first half but come out a new team in the second. I believe that life is that same way. The minutes of the second quarter wind down and you realize that you cannot play this way for the entire game.

Something has to change.
In the locker room, the coaches look at what went wrong, what went right, and then adjust their game plan so to put them in the best possible position to play a winning second half.

• Gary Patterson, coach of the TCU Horned Frogs, is renowned for his halftime adjustments.  Second half comebacks are standard fare for the Horned Frogs because of his ability to make the proper adjustments to win.

In life, most of us start out with a pretty basic game plan:

1. Get an education.
2. Find a companion for life.
3. Land a good position in a company.
4. Be further ahead each year.

Suddenly, you may find yourself sensing a loss of fulfillment or emptiness with the routine or course of your life.  Something is pressing you to change. It may be that there is a crisis in your life that destroys everything you thought was going to be the rest of your life. Loss of job, divorce, death of a spouse or a child, serious illness or other crises may force you into the locker room.  It’s halftime.

How will you play the second half?
Too many people live their lives this way: by the time they figure out what life is all about, it’s over. This does not have to be your story. Just because your life will be different (or needs to be different) does not mean its over. I believe that the rest of your life can be the best of your life. Regardless of your season or your status, you can begin today with the benefit of past experience and the power of purpose.

Unlike football we don’t know at what point we’re at our halftime. Age has no relevance to our halftime since we don’t know how long our lives will be. Many of the men and women in the Bible who were used by God were called to their greatest work after they had already been through half of their life or more.  Moses was 80 when God chose him and took him out of the desert!

I do not know where you are in the game. If you are in your twenties, you have probably just received the opening kickoff and have an exciting half ahead of you.

For most, the real understanding of the game, the rules and the objectives are just beginning to come into focus at halftime. We often do not hear Christ’s direction to an abundant life in the first half because we are too busy executing our own plan to listen to His. During the first half of your life, if you are like me, you probably did not have time to think about how you would spend the rest of your life. You probably rushed through college, fell in love, married, embarked on a career, climbed upward, and acquired many things to help make the journey comfortable.

In the Scriptures, Jesus preached that he had come so that his followers might have abundant life, life to the fullest. The Jesus I had come to know and love was leading me to the paths of a large life, not a small or narrow one.  He was asking me to say a loud "Yes!" to a life packed with significance.

If the first half was a quest for success, the second half is a journey to significance. 

I have come to the conclusion that the second half of our lives should be the best half; it can be, in fact, a personal renaissance. You played a hard-fought first half. You may have even been winning. But sooner or later you begin to wonder, “Is this it?  Is this all there is?”  The game is won or lost in the second half, not the first.

You cannot stay where you are and go with God.  You cannot continue to do things your way and accomplish God's purposes in His ways."  Henry Blackaby

Scripture to Claim:

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot… Ecclesiastes 3:1-2