What’s Our Goal?

A little elderly lady decided she wanted to learn to bowl. The instructor helped her pick out a ball and gave her some pointers about the proper approach and how to release the ball. The first ball knocked down all ten pins. “That’s a strike,” the instructor said excitedly.

The lady did the same thing on the next two balls and the instructor was equally excited. The lady put her ball back on the rack and started to leave. Her instructor asked her why she was leaving. Her reply was, “Well, anybody knows that you’re out after three strikes and since I
can’t get the hang of this game I might as well give up.”

Mixed up? Maybe so. That lady wanted to do something but failed to find out what her goal was.
The instructor, perhaps, took too much for granted.

How about you and me? Do we know what our goal is? Paul said, “I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:14) Also, he states in 1 Corinthians 9:26, “Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air.” Paul had a goal and sought it with an unwavering, positive attitude. The phrase “as not without aim” indicates that he had ‘set his sights’, so to speak, on a specific goal and was pursuing it.

Jesus had goals. He had come “to seek and to save that which was lost.” He came to “do the will of Him who sent me.” He came to build his church. He came, as He says in John 17:21, “... that they may all be one; even as You Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.” Those are ambitious goals. Jesus died to see their reality.

Someone has said, “Some people go through life aiming for nothing and hit their mark with amazing accuracy.” Let this not be said of the church here in Dewey. We must have goals, not just ‘pipe dreams.’ We can talk for years about what we want or what it would be nice to have. But - if we are ever to realize any of those dreams, we must work to see them fulfilled. We must pray for their fulfillment. We must give ourselves over to seeing them fulfilled.

What do you want for the church where you are? It means beginning with individual effort - setting individual goals - reaching out as individuals. Let us each set goals, for ourselves individually and for the church.

Let’s ask ourselves the question, “If I hit what I’m aiming at, what will I hit?” Don’t aim at nothing when you are serving the Lord. Strike - but don’t strike out!

See you when the saints meet, Lord willing.

Love, Tony