Life Goals

My high school teacher advised me to make a choice. He knew that I had many interests and God-given abilities. He said, “You need to decide if you want to know a lot about one thing and very little about everything else — or to know a little bit about everything and be an expert in nothing.”

Throughout life, I’ve wavered. I wanted to know a lot about everything — an unattainable goal. So also is the goal to know a great deal about one thing, although this is the choice of many. Being interested in much has scattered my attention and left me with that ‘pillar to post’ sense of never being able to focus on anything.

However, God has finally got it through my head that skills, interests, fields of endeavor, careers, and so on will not last. I painted only to find that even artists live in a cut-throat realm. I’ve taken many other routes and found them to be distractions rather than a way that meant something.

Initially the Bible pointed me in the right direction with verses like these, yet it has taken years to get in step with the choice God had for me . . .

“Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years. Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.” (Genesis 5:23–24)

“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” (Romans 8:28–29)

“I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:14)

Enoch had the goal. He walked with God, not contrary to God, not his own way, not the way others thought he should go. The verses from Genesis indicate that his walk went from earth to eternity without death being a big deal. He was already hand in hand with God.

As a new Christian, God blessed me with the goal from Romans; be like Jesus. Let all things carve and shape me to that end. However, my activities seemed separate from that choice. Did I want to be an artist? A writer? So many routes I could take. Where do I focus? It took a long time to realize that I’d already been given the focus. Occupations, career choices, etc. were incidental.

The third passage, Philippians 3:14, seemed too vague. What does “the prize of the upward call” mean? Will I know when I have it? Yet this is it, something more purposeful than any other decision, choice, occupation. Seek His face. Determine to reflect it. become more like Jesus. make that the primary goal of life and everything else falls into place. First is first. Second, third, fourth are not really the issue. Delight in God and He helps me sort it out. Trying to sort it out without putting Him on the throne of my heart is futile.

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Jesus, You are the prize. Seeking You is the main thing, the only thing that lasts forever. The rest of it is fluff, temporary, prone to fire, rot and rust or to be stolen. Nothing else matters. Only You are worthy. Only You are eternal.