Goals - Who Needs Em?

I feel sad for those who don’t know Jesus as friend, and guide. I feel sorry because they are forced to chart a course for their own lives. If they are to be considered successful by others who are also adrift in the same sea of life, then they must, as it is known in the vernacular, “Set goals for themselves.” They must set financial goals, personal goals, retirement goals and business goals. Goals for the week and goals for the weekend. They gotta have goals for their children’s education, goals for their marriage and goals for the New Year. They gotta have short term goals and long term goals; goals for their body and goals for their mind. People without their Creator for a Pilot must plot a course and head for what they believe to be the safest port. And they must do this all on speculation.

Nevertheless, they gotta nail it down. Figure it out. Peer into the future and avoid mistakes. At all cost they must avoid mistakes. When they are young they call this journey an adventure. The exude pride and possess a noble sense of independence. By middle age however, they call it the wheel of rebirth and suffering or they identify with lines like, ‘Life is hard and then you die.’ The sad part of all this is, setting goals is NOT the way to personal success. Setting goals is simply a way of ignoring the fatigue cracks in the hull of the craft in which you are sailing.

Not so with Jesus. Followers of Jesus have no need of goals. All that we need is a willingness to follow Jesus where ever He leads. For example, followers of Jesus are given the strength and courage to be led into a marriage where disappointments are not something to run from. Instead, disappointments are something in which we are introduced to our true selves. If we are willing to do that, then we are also able to allow Jesus to make adjustments as needed. A willingness to follow Jesus brings the strength to become people of integrity and courage, compassion and grace.

Because of that, we can follow Jesus into both personal and financial loss. We can follow Jesus into the shadow of death. We can follow Jesus and trust in His promise that is found in Isaiah 43:2 - “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.”

You see, all of us, Christian and non Christian, are going to face trials and hardships in life. All of us are going to suffer at some point in our journey, and for some, we’ll suffer all the way through our journey. The only real question is whether you will suffer with Jesus in your life or without Him. The beauty of being in an intimate relationship with Jesus is that, unlike not-yet believers, hardships are not something to be avoided. Most people spend so much time trying to squirm out of their difficulties that they never take part in the learning that is possible only within the context of difficulties. Because of that, they never learn that suffering need not be a barrier to peace. Because of Jesus, difficulties need not be something that destroys or disables our ability to reach the intended end to which Jesus is leading us.

Granted, even with Jesus, difficulties remain difficulties. Suffering remains suffering. Pain remains pain. Grief remains grief. However, with Jesus in one’s life, all these things activate the presence of our Creator. The presence of God’s Spirit, something that resides inside every follower of Jesus, creates a buffer to the amount of damage that disaster can bring. The degree of damage is limited to only that which can promote growth; it need never be enough to permanently cripple. The Holy Spirit creates in a believer courage to face the next test and the next one after that and so on and so on.

Rather than avoiding the tidal waves of life, with Jesus as my guide, I have been able to grab hold of His hand, and with eyes wide open I am able to wade into the midst of the pain and walk changed for the better out the other side. With Jesus as my counsellor, I am able to experience my weakness and failure as the harbinger of yet another level of spiritual victory. It is bracing and exciting - fantastically exciting. Life with Jesus is true adventure. His grace always, always, always outweighs the weight of life.

Do I experience this perfectly everyday? No. But I’m way better at it than I was yesterday. And because each ordeal increases my trust in my Saviour, I’ll be better at it tomorrow than I was today. I think that is why that verse in Isaiah does not say, ‘You will walk on the waters to the other side.’ Jesus knows that our lack of faith will cause us to sink. But I also know, and all believers know, that He will not allow us to drown. With each pass through the waters of affliction, our increasing faith causes us to rise a little bit higher, and to come out the other side a little bit drier. Praise the Lord that I am not the master of my fate, nor the captain of my soul.