New Year, New Goals

I don’t know if I have really set goals for my life in about 4 years. For those of you who know me, you may find that hard to believe or even think I’m lying.

When I was younger, I was an extremely driven, goal-oriented child. My mom has some pretty funny stories about my goals and determination. I think one of her favorites is from when I was in 3^rd grade. We had a project that we were given several weeks to do. My teacher told us that if we would just work 15 minutes or so everyday, we’d have no problem finishing it. Of course I wanted to do well on this project, so starting that day I would come home from school everyday and set our kitchen timer for 15 minutes and that’s how long I would work. I finished the project with no problems.

My determination to meet my goals has also been difficult at times, though. My goal in school was always to make straight A’s. I got a B once in 4^th grade and almost had a nervous breakdown. I felt the same crushing blow when I did not get into my first choice college.

These goals, whether met or not, typically provided good learning experiences for me. And looking back, the goals I was not able to meet probably taught me more than the ones I did.

So why has it been so long since I set goals?

In college, God did a huge work in my life and changed my life and priorities quite a bit. A large part of that was asking me to give up my selfish goals to Him. Over those four years, I made some of the most difficult decisions of my life, giving God many different areas of my life and sacrificing the goals I had in those areas.

That same journey that God led me on over those four years also led me overseas after college. While working overseas, I did set goals on my team, but they were directed by our leader and focused on the work there, not necessarily about my life in general.

As I returned to the US, my only real goal was to get a job and “figure out what was next.” I can’t tell you how many times I repeated that statement, “I’m just trying to figure out what’s next.” While this statement was true, and I really was trying to hear from God what He would have me to do, what I didn’t realize was that “next” was what was happening while I tried to figure out which direction to move. “Next” was happening to me; I wasn’t determining what it would be.

I would read the verse, “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men…” (Colossians 3.23), and believe that God was ok with me floating along in life as long as I worked “heartily.” Now, I can tell you that I have absolutely not done all of my work “heartily, as for the Lord” but regardless of that fact, floating along is not God’s plan for my life. Deep down, I knew there was more, but I was scared to act, fearing that I would once again make goals that would just be taken away.

I have been essentially paralyzed, waiting to hear what was “next.” As a result, here I am, 2 years later, having not met any goals because I never really set any. Looking back, I see a key reason why I never set any goals: I viewed the goals as bad.

I saw God asking me to give up some pretty big goals in order to follow Him, and I began to see goals in general as bad. So I just stopped making goals. I completed my term overseas, came back to the US, and started floating along. Now I realize that coming back to the States required some adjustment time, but two years is a bit much. I have been afraid to set any goals because I viewed the goals as bad.

The reality, though, was that my goals were selfish and sinful idols in my life and that is why God asked me to give them up. They were interfering with my relationship with Him. I got so caught up in meeting the goals I had established, that I was unable to properly worship God. I was worshiping the goals and myself instead of Him, so the goals had to go.

The thing is, goals aren’t bad. We need direction and focus in our lives so that we continue to move forward. We just need to 1.) Pursue God in our goals and seek His goals for our lives and 2.) Keep our ultimate focus on God and not let our goals or ourselves eclipse Him.

God likes goals and purpose. God has purpose in what He does and for our lives. He will give us purpose and goals if we ask.

Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established. – Proverbs 16.3

We just need to be sure that we are seeking God’s goals and God’s fame, not our own goals, agenda, and fame.

Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand. – Proverbs 19.21

So for the first time, in a long time, I’m setting some goals. Some, I’ll meet this month. Some, I’ll meet this year. Some, I’ll meet later. Some, God will take away from me because they are not from Him.

My prayer is that these goals serve to bring God glory, and that when 2012 comes around, I can look back and see that I am closer to God than I am today because of these goals.