Mark 4:19 -- No Goals, Pursuit

and the anxieties of this age, and the deceitfulness of the riches, and the desires concerning the other things, entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.

Mark 4:19 (YLT)

I work in a very dedicated and defined Goal based industry. As a programmer, I have goals constantly. Deadlines, and product requirements. How many issuers per reporting cycle is acceptable, and even how many times clients can lose connectivity to the software as a metric.  Lines of code. Total aggregated bill hours as an average of time spent.

All of these metrics and things to aim for just clutter my life.  

And then you stroll down the self-help section, and see it cluttering the shelves there.  A quick search of the self help section on the kindle, provides the following book list:

• GO! How to Get Going and Achieve your Goals and Dreams : A book for women and girls by Marcia K. Morgan
• Goals! How to Get Everything You Want -- Faster Than You Ever Thought Possible by Brian Tracy
• Succeed: How We Can Reach Our Goals by Heidi Grant Halvorson Ph.D. & Carol S. Dweck
• The 4 Disciplines of Execution: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals by Chris McChesney & Sean Covey
• The One Goal: Master The Art of Goal Setting, Win Your Inner Battles, and Achieve Exceptional Results (Free Workbook Included) by Thibault Meurisse

And it goes on and on. A crushing weight of expectations.  We teach our children, and ourselves that we all need these goals to aim for. That we should have some defined point to which we're struggling and pushing ourselves.  That everything we do, and try, should be a struggle against the odds grasping at this random point that we've defined for ourselves. 

Now don't get me wrong. Goals aren't bad in and of themselves. Having something to aim for can be helpful. It's a necessity of fact in the business world.  If I didn't have goals as a developer, how would my boss know that I'm meeting my duties to him and our clients? 

But when we look at goals as the end all and be all of our existence. When we focus on the anxieties of this age and the deceitfulness of the riches, then we're taking our focus off of what's truly important. 

Basically, the old saying "It's not the destination, it's the journey" has the truth of things. We don't need to focus our lives and selves on the goals. Doing so, takes our attention from the one true goal of a Christian life.  Rather, we should focus ourselves on our pursuits. 

And our pursuits should be focused on the Lord.  Jeremiah 29:13 reads "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." 

God is clear on this. When we seek him, when we pursue him, and not the goals of this world, then He will provide.  

Journal Prompt: How can I change one of my life goals into a pursuit for God?