Ever since beginning my "professional" life, I've struggled with the idea of living by goals. Every year, we are asked to make several goals for ourselves. The direction of these goals is never clearly stated. For example, in my first year of teaching, I didn't really know what to say for a goal (survive?), so as my third one I wrote something along the lines of "trusting in God's strength to use me and change me." Now, if you've ever done some serious goal writing, you'll know that they are supposed to be SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely). I think my goal was only 2 of those, probably, but my supervisor didn't really know what to say. How can you measure that, make it more specific, know that you've attained it, or even make it timely? And yet, of all my goals, I wanted nothing more than that. In the big picture of things, that was far more important than including standards with every lesson or being sure to assess learning every day.
But I'm still torn. I know that it is important to have direction and continue to push ourselves to excel. At the same time, a part of me says "trust God, ask Him to work, and even if you don't know what He's doing, He'll do more than you could ever 'goal' for yourself." That first year, my supervisor admitted, later on, that he was somewhat worried about me because of my aversion to goals or rather that I perhaps thought we couldn't know what direction God wanted us to take. He brought up the point that we can ask God to show us what goals He wants for us. I liked that idea, but still... do we have to know what God is doing in order to go along with His plan?
Just so you know, I do realize the roots of my "fear" of goals. It's a long story, not for this post, but in short, it came from a series of goals I had planned out for myself which I could not achieve for reasons beyond my control (and the goals were even SMART). I had "goaled" out my life only to realize that what I thought I wanted was not what God wanted. And yet, what He had for me was far better than all the things I had planned out and worked to accomplish. As a result, I decided that, if I just waited on Him, He would bring about His good in time. I don't really need to know what that is in order to achieve it.
Some of you may be thinking that I'm quite pathetic now. One series of goal unreached and I've completely given up. But that's not it. There is a greater goal, living with purpose (No, I never read the book, maybe I'm a heathen) and a single goal "to glorify God and enjoy Him forever." But then you could say "that's a spiritual goal, what about the practical every-day stuff, like include standards on all my lesson plan, or study Chinese two hours a week." And those are the types of goals I hypocritically set for myself despite my dislike of goals. Maybe I agree that goals do have their place.
In summary, goals are written to give us direction. Plans are made so we don't go crazy, but if we give our plans to the Lord (and plans based on goals), then He will guide us. And even if we don't reach our goals and our plans are unaccomplished, it is okay because we can always trust that God is working beyond our sight.
But my "goal" for this post was to get some feedback. What does the Bible say about living by goals? What do you think?
Here's a start:
Psalm 19:21 "Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails."
Hebrews 12:2 "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith..."
James 4:13-14 "Now listen, you who say 'Today or tomorrow we will go to this city or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.' Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while then vanishes."
Proverbs 16:13 "Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed"
There are many more, and I would even say you could make a case for both sides using Scripture, but is there a perspective I'm missing?
But I'm still torn. I know that it is important to have direction and continue to push ourselves to excel. At the same time, a part of me says "trust God, ask Him to work, and even if you don't know what He's doing, He'll do more than you could ever 'goal' for yourself." That first year, my supervisor admitted, later on, that he was somewhat worried about me because of my aversion to goals or rather that I perhaps thought we couldn't know what direction God wanted us to take. He brought up the point that we can ask God to show us what goals He wants for us. I liked that idea, but still... do we have to know what God is doing in order to go along with His plan?
Just so you know, I do realize the roots of my "fear" of goals. It's a long story, not for this post, but in short, it came from a series of goals I had planned out for myself which I could not achieve for reasons beyond my control (and the goals were even SMART). I had "goaled" out my life only to realize that what I thought I wanted was not what God wanted. And yet, what He had for me was far better than all the things I had planned out and worked to accomplish. As a result, I decided that, if I just waited on Him, He would bring about His good in time. I don't really need to know what that is in order to achieve it.
Some of you may be thinking that I'm quite pathetic now. One series of goal unreached and I've completely given up. But that's not it. There is a greater goal, living with purpose (No, I never read the book, maybe I'm a heathen) and a single goal "to glorify God and enjoy Him forever." But then you could say "that's a spiritual goal, what about the practical every-day stuff, like include standards on all my lesson plan, or study Chinese two hours a week." And those are the types of goals I hypocritically set for myself despite my dislike of goals. Maybe I agree that goals do have their place.
In summary, goals are written to give us direction. Plans are made so we don't go crazy, but if we give our plans to the Lord (and plans based on goals), then He will guide us. And even if we don't reach our goals and our plans are unaccomplished, it is okay because we can always trust that God is working beyond our sight.
But my "goal" for this post was to get some feedback. What does the Bible say about living by goals? What do you think?
Here's a start:
Psalm 19:21 "Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails."
Hebrews 12:2 "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith..."
James 4:13-14 "Now listen, you who say 'Today or tomorrow we will go to this city or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.' Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while then vanishes."
Proverbs 16:13 "Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed"
There are many more, and I would even say you could make a case for both sides using Scripture, but is there a perspective I'm missing?
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