I Did It My Way!

“I did it my way!” So goes the words to the song that Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley helped to popularize. It’s an enjoyable and entertaining song, and yet, as epitomized by their lives it was more than a song. It became their anthem.

If you are a child of God, with Jesus as your Master, that song should remain just what it is; an entertaining and popular song and nothing more. Yet, as you look around today, you can still see that philosophy at work, and not just in secular worldly circles.

I’m a preacher and a what I consider to be a student of human behavior and so I learn by observation as well as experience; with that in mind I will give you an example of what I’m talking about from past experience. Some time ago (in fact years, now) I had an opportunity to pray with some other Christians concerning the possibility of starting an organization that would benefit the community. We prayed quite fervently and sought the Lord for direction and vision and the Lord blessed the leadership with both; confirmed by everyone else involved in those prayers. The organization was thus established with many apparent and obvious miracles paving the way. The vision was also shared with the community with some accompanying promises to garner their support. As we progressed though, as is common in anything that involves the natural order of things, the turmoil and trials of running this large organization changed the very character of the organization into something totally different than the vision that was confirmed to be of the Lord. Many people in the community saw the difference and remembered the promises, and many people, including those that had initially prayed were clearly disheartened, including myself.

What had happened was that God had set a precedent, a goal for what He wanted to accomplish in the initial vision. But as soon as the trials and problems started, instead of leaders hitting their knees and asking the Lord’s advice and direction, the supposed wisdom of man stepped up and said, “Thanks, Lord, I’ll take it from here.” They made that song, “I did it my way” their anthem without even realizing it.