Pressing Towards the Goal 3/4

A few weeks ago, I was in Boston visiting my in-laws. I love Boston. Everyting from the sights and the smells just makes me feel right at home. Not only do I love Boston, I’m a Red Sox fan.

But wait, you may say, aren’t you from Miami? Shouldn’t you be a Marlins fan? Well, I am. They’re my National League team while Boston is my American League team…but unfortunately, neither the Marlins nor the Red Sox have anything to look forward to for the next few years, but that’s besides the point. I remember a few years ago how excited everyone that is not a Yankees fan was when the Red Sox won the World Series. Interestingly, check out what one newspaper wrote after their win:

 "After their team won the 2004 World Series of baseball, fans of Boston’s Red Sox struggled to adjust. A New York Times article chronicled their confusion:

Having waited 86 years for a World Series championship, Bostonians found themselves…swirling with elation, but also scratching their heads.

What are Red Sox fans to do when the angst of being one of the world’s greatest underdogs is gone?

“I’m having trouble dealing with it,” said Mike Andrews, who played second base for the Red Sox in 1967, when they lost to the Cardinals during one of their many close-but-no-cigar face-offs. “You’re kind of caught saying, “What’s next?” I don’t want to say it’s a letdown. But it’s certainly part of your life and it’s gone now, and we need to come up with something new."

In so identifying themselves with a prize such as a World Series title, the Red Sox were left without a mission or purpose after their goal of winning a championship had been achieved. Sure, they became the first team ever to come back from an 0-3 deficit to beat their rivals, the New York Yankees, but what was next after that? Without a greater goal to strive for, they were left with a time of rediscovering their identity.

Striving for your goals isn't bad, but have you ever asked yourself, “What exactly IS my goal?” Do you have anything that you want to do with your life? I don’t mean to sound like your mother, but if you’re just riding the waves of life without a goal in sight, what good is anything?

For some people, their goals are what Tony Montana said in Scarface (I don’t condone that movie, I’m just using it as an example :)) “Money, power, respect.” Unfortunately with things like this, there is really never an end in sight. Once you get your first big break, you’ll notice that someone else has a nicer office or a bigger paycheck and you’ll eventually want their position too. Thus, it becomes an ever ending journey for a goal you’ll never actually reach to begin with.

Paul did have a goal, a desire in life. He said this in the first half of Philippians 3:14:

14A I press on toward the goal for the prize

Sometimes a thing is all the more impressive for being left undescribed. Paul tells us neither what the goal is, nor what the prize will be. Yet suddenly the earthly scene with all of its strivings, sufferings and sacrifices gives way to heavenly glory. One scriptural picture after another fills and elevates the mind upwards to his celestial goal. Still, from this piece of scripture, we arrive at our third lesson for reaching our goals. Namely, to reach our goals, we must have an absorbing desire.

Our desire is based on what we are aiming towards, what we want out of life. What are you aiming towards? Do you have any goals for this New Year? Let’s first talk about you as a person or as a leader. What INSPIRES you? What gives you life, purpose, meaning? Are you happy where you are?

Do you have a goal? Once you reach that goal, what happens next? Don’t be like these guys to the right from Finding Nemo that once you reach your goal, you’re left wondering, “What’s next?” Today, think about what are your goals and make sure that your absorbing desire doesn’t leave you empty once you reach it.

“The meaning of earthly existence lies not as we have grown used to thinking, in prospering, but in the development of the soul.” Alexander Soizhenitsyn, Leadership, Vol. 7, no. 3.