What are worthy goals?

March 30, 2011
Scripture Verse that Caught my attention today: 1 Corinthians 15:58 Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

Observation: If there are things that are not vain (like laboring in the work of the Lord), there are also things that are vain. How does one know the difference?

Application: I’m aware of a couple of individuals in different walks of life who are each very determined, motivated, and focused on what they perceive to be their respective missions. One wants to develop a network of 1000 personal trainers who will train 1000 people each, thus adding up to 1,000,000 people ‘helped’ by the year 2020. The other wants to transform education.

I’m not really questioning either of these particular goals other than to ponder to myself, what makes a worthy goal? For example, is the goal of helping 1,000,000 people inherently better than training 950,000 people? Some might say yes, it’s 50,000 people better! Okay…so why not have a goal of 1,050,000 people?

And then what of those people who never seem to have any real goals? They go about their work/callings from day to day without any lofty man-made visions? It seems these people fall into at least two camps: those who just trudge on through life and those who endeavor to work with diligence and creativity in almost all aspects of their life.

I think the Apostle Paul fell in the latter of these camps. He didn’t seem to have any particular numerical goals to my knowledge, but he had a passion for serving the Lord with all of his energy that, ironically, continues to convict and inspire legions of people today, even some 2000 years after he died!

Prayer: Lord, whether we are goal-setters or not, help us to make the best use of the one resource that you offer equally to all—time. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

(readings today included Judges 8, Psalm 42, and 1 Corinthians 15)