From Seth Godin’s blog: “Persistence isn’t using the same tactics over and over. That’s just annoying. Persistence is having the same goal over and over.”

We hear people, and churches, say, “We already tried that before, and it didn’t work.” Are they referring to the goal, or the tactics for accomplishing that goal? If the goal remains worthy, just try different tactics to accomplish it. But don’t say, “We tried to accomplish that goal, and it didn’t work.”

That kid who beat me in the table tennis tournament on Saturday–if I played him again, I would definitely need different tactics.

One more note from Mark Cuban’s post about destiny, which I referred to Monday. He wrote:

The greatest obstacle to destiny is debt, both personal and financial. The more people you are obligated to, the harder it is to focus on yourself and figure things out….Financial debt is the ultimate dream killer. Your first house, car, whatever stuff you might want to buy are going to be the primary reasons you stop looking for what makes you the happiest.

A lotta truth there. I hear a lot about bright young people who feel called to missionary service, but college debts keep them tied to the States until they can pay down those debts. Meanwhile, their commitment to missions dissipates. Sad, sad.

Churches run into dream-killing debt issues with overly-ambitious building programs. The demands of debt create a constant distraction from the church’s mission. Way too much time at board meetings focuses on money issues.

But Cuban also mentions “personal” debts to “people you are obligated to.” Sometimes missionaries return from the field to care for an ailing parent; I can’t fault that. In a book I wrote about our missionary work in Honduras, I learned about an incredible missionary named Betty Brown who did just that.

But sometimes, the reason is that a parent isn’t on board with your missionary call, or can’t stand being separated, or whatever. They put up a fuss, and the missionary feels compelled to return (or not go in the first place). What would I do in such situations? Well, I don’t have to worry about that, because my parents would be thrilled if Pam and I became missionaries.

At any rate, Cuban’s words about personal and financial debts being dream-killers are well noted.