Between the Goals

     I’ve got goals for my life.  I wanna be a better runner, do more sit-ups and eat better.   I wanna wake up earlier, spend more time reading the Bible and pray every chance I get.  I wanna lead people to Christ, develop pastors and move my family to Uganda.  These goals are important to me.  Really important!  But they aren’t as important as what happens between them.

     Our brains are filled with goals and objectives that constantly change and adjust to our daily needs.  We look in the fridge.  No milk.  New goal: get milk.  We find our keys, drive to the store, grab a gallon of milk and checkout at the register.  Goal accomplished!  But what happened between the goals?  While we were looking for the keys our child was begging for attention.  While we drove to the store God tried to speak to us over the blaring noise of our radio.  While we shopped in dairy section we gave a quick passing thought to the needs of our local pantry.  While we checked out at the register we reluctantly noticed the low and discouraged face of the worn-out employee behind the counter.

     How much of our life is defined by the goals we set?  Certainly our goals determine much of what we do, where we go, who we see, etc.  However, I believe our lives are defined by what happens between the goals.  Qualities like kindness, compassion, integrity and love do not show themselves in a to-do list check mark for “buy milk”.  We see these virtues not in the goals we set but in the way we go about reaching those goals.
     Our last year has been filled with goals and yet it is the stuff between the goals that has most impacted our journey.  Goals are important.  We should set good goals and we should work to achieve those goals.  But in that work let us keep our focus on those things which really matter.  Is love more important than milk?  Are we living a scheduled life or a sanctified life?  When we reflect on our lives will we say we ‘got a lot done’ or ‘we loved thoroughly’?