Reaching For a Goal

Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:13-14 NRS)

Many of us are very focused in our work. We have easily defined goals and tasks to accomplish and so it is easy to determine the best course of action to accomplish those goals. Many of us wish the rest of our lives would be so easy to quantify and define.

It’s easy to be pulled in directions we did not intend to go, or to be distracted from the purpose to which God has called us. We live in a world that puts out many ideas about what is most important, about what should be the priority in our life, about what is supposed to matter to us.

The challenge for us as Christians is to remember the purpose that truly matters - the one that God has given to us as disciples. That purpose isn’t well
respected by the world. However you think you are supposed to live out your life as a disciple probably puts you in conflict with the values of this world. It has always been that way.

Our culture has had an ebb and flow in its relationship to God and faith. That ebb and flow goes back to the founding events of Christianity and the first church. Many of Paul’s letters to early Christians were encouragement to hold fast to their understanding of faith in the midst of a world that didn’t accept what Christianity was teaching.

No matter what distracts or tempts us, Paul gives us words of encouragement that we can persevere and obtain the prize that God has offered to us. The prize is life with God and that is lived out as we remember the love that has claimed us and made us children of a loving and graceful God.

Forgetting is hard. Moving on can seem impossible. But nothing is impossible for the God who loves us.