Methodolgy

We commonly miss our way by failing to become activists for the future.  We fail in many ways, and never really put the blame where it belongs – on self.  We may believe we set goals when we only set purposes.  Purposes announce what we want to be or achieve, goals make purposes specific.  Purposes are dreams that may stay with us unfilled into old age.  Many men and women do not discover goals as necessary until middle age, and end up with a half-life professionally, perhaps also personally.  There is need, for example, a goal related to the schedule and person I want to marry.  Goals turn purposes into reality.  If we gain our purposes without goals, which may accidentally happen, we may not recognize that accidents may be beneficial.  We can accidentally accomplish good things as we can accidentally fail.  Chance is a poor associate for success.  Percentages do not favor it.  The process includes factors like presentation.  How do I present myself, in speech, in dress, even in the way I eat?  The move away from sophistication, in the proper use of the right concept of sophistication, has not served best in recent generations.  It is common now to be in the grunge mode, not only in dress, but in much of life context.  We expect the rewards of an advancing economy and education without paying the effort for them.  And, there are other factors to consider, such as building a network of persons in our lives that will assist us to the objectives we seek.  But that is a topic for another Page.  The point is that we must prepare our situations for our goals.

To repeat a concept often dropped by poorly oriented Christians: I seek only God’s will. He will guide me.It is important that we don’t misuse the word only in the statement.  In a life that is free, God’s will requires the responsibility in the person to achieve it.  That means planning which separates the necessary from the unnecessary – the important from the unimportant.  There is a setting about to make God’s will practical and satisfying in a life, productive for divine purpose.  Some persons actually fight the principles of planning.  They may argue that to do so is against biblical principles.  They commonly cite Matthew 6:31 or James 4:13.  They miss the point of the writers.  The passages affirm goal-setting, but make clear that God is included in the goals.  God is not found in the goal-abusers of life: thieves, prostitutes and others. Scripture includes a prophetic factor, so we live in something of that meaning by following a chosen path to our own future prophecy, and make that vision come true.  God has plans, well formed.  So should we.  The prophecy of Isaiah gives us the clue to Go For It.  God plans with us in our generation.

Some fear in setting goals is that the goals become morals.  If I set a goal, and miss it, I must be a bad person.  These persons miss the means of measurement.  I may miss my goal on this occasion, but learn enough from the experience that my new goal becomes better for me than the first one would have become in completion.  Goals, rightly formed, drive us to practicality to accomplish vision, ideals, dreams, and fulfillment.  Many persons are caught up in religiosity, which worsens when they make (presume) God fit into anything they do.  They seem to believe all doors are closed except those that are easy to go through – the ones that seem to be open.  They don’t take on the duty to form their lives, but follow some minstrel of accident.  The Apostle Paul determined to cross over into Asia, a clear goal, but that door was closed to him.  (Another Apostle took that on.)  For Paul, God had to close doors in that the Apostle saw them all open, and sought resources to proceed.  He knew, when the resources were not found, that he was to tend to other goals.  Those goals gained his attention in the evangelism of Europe.  The goal of David, in his advanced years, was to build a Temple for God.  He was denied, for God’s reason refusing David who was a man of war.  Solomon, a son of David and a man of peace, saw the open door and went through it.  He found that his father in seeking the goal had already amassed much of the material to be used in the project.  It is common for God to use this person to set up a goal, and another to finish it.  Solomon was wise.  He went for it.  That going for it gave validity to the vision of his father.  I can guess why the Asian purpose was denied Paul.  He would spread himself too thin.  Moses was denied the victory of the promised land of Canaan even though he viewed it before he died.  He was likely too old and worn out for the challenge.