Eternal Goals
The goals we strive towards define us. They direct our days and focus our efforts. No success is possible without goals because as many authors have said, “If you aim for nothing you are sure to hit it.” While we understand how influential goals are, it is should be realized that most goals neutral: the same goal can be worthwhile for one and worthless for another. Goal we set may have no value or significance to another. For example, I have a friend whose chief goal is to make a fortune. Since the accumulation of wealth drives him, regardless of how you or I feel about it, his goal is useful and because it motivates him to action. In this way the goal is worthwhile. For others wealth has never been a motivator. Being satisfied with enough to eat, a place to sleep and some left over for a bit of fun, this goal would be worthless. These people will need other goals to act upon and strive towards. Perhaps it would be fame or even altruism. Whatever motivates a person to action is their goal and the goal is for them worthwhile. This does not make all goals equal, nor does it make them all good. It merely says the individual has determined the goal worth the effort to accomplish it.
Though individual goals are worthwhile and useful to each they are not interchangeable. My goal may not motivate my friend and his goal may not motivate me. To try to impose one person’s goals on another is futile, but groups of people can hold similar or identical goals. Among Christians, we have such goals universally valued by believers. Primary among these would be the Lord’s reaction to our service in this life. When we stand before the Lord we want to be blessed and hear, “Well done.” We want to be praised by him for our service and to bask in His praise. How can we hear this? What actions on this earth, in this life will inspire this reaction from our Lord?
Paul tells us the source, the very essence, of such praise in 1 Thessalonians 2:19. He tells the Thessalonians that they are his hope, joy and crown. They are the only thing for him to glory in before God. The crown he speaks of is the laurel wreathe given to a victor or a winner of a contest. Paul says those he has reached are the image of his hope in Christ. He can hope and have joy in the fact that he has reached people. He has a crown through the victory that has come through reaching the lost and building up the saved.
When we ignore our responsibility to reach the lost and make disciples we ignore the one thing, besides our own salvation, in which we can revel in the Lord’s presence.
