Goals?
How are your goals coming for 2021?
Perhaps I should back up and ask, ‘Do you have any goals for 2021?’
Yes, I have yearly goals too. This year I have goals for exercise, time in my Bible, quality time with wife
and son, education, and home projects. So, how are they coming? Overall, they are going well, but an
important element is that all my goals are measurable, otherwise I would not know how they are
coming! But this question still misses the mark of what really matters.
How are you coming? I prefer to call my goals disciplines. The important thing about goals is not really
the accomplishment. The important thing is that they change you in some way. They discipline you.
Personal discipline is not punishment (at least that’s not the point). It is growth.
If you are a Christian, you need to ask yourself: ‘Am I growing more like Christ, or am I stagnant?’ As one
of my professors liked to say: ‘There’s no discipleship without discipline.’ I am not saying ‘no pain, no
gain.’ Pain is a separate topic. We are looking for commitment!
I strive to be more committed to growth, integrity, and God’s mission (which are inseparable) than to
my own desires and comforts. Examples of that can vary. Some are to “run a mile a day” or to spend all
day Sunday serving my family and helping them rest. A new one this year is to do a Sudoku puzzle every
day (teaching my brain to see more patterns). All these directly relate to my spiritual life, as all things
are spiritual!
Let us set attainable and measurable goals that will make us more like Christ together!
Remember Matthew 11:28-30 NIV: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give
you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you
will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Even when we are struggling in life, or working on disciplining ourselves for growth, God gives us
rest and encouragement to continue. The ultimate rest is knowing that you are pleasing the Lord.
