Goal setting and planning!
This may come as something of a surprise, but there are very few people that I can’t get along with. Some I have to work harder to be in concert with, others present opportunities to be with without any trouble at all.
For years I’ve divided people into two groups, “dreamers” and “doers.” In a recent YouTube post a young couple announced they had come to realize this recently and that it made a major difference in their marriage. Take a look at your friendship circle and see if you can see this in others as well as your close personal relationships. My assessment is that if there are two dreamers nothing gets done, and if there are two doers life is incredibly boring.
I add another dimension to this notion that I believe is based on the advice of Scripture. Goal setting and planning are essential because they are based on certainty!
Here then, is the rub. With rascals trying to govern my life and the affairs of the world, and the ravages of fire, wind and disease are howling and destroying on so many fronts, it is really hard to set meaningful goals and to lay plans to achieve them. It’s like playing chess. Moves and counter moves need to be properly thought through in order to win. Add to this the matter of incalculable risk, and flawed thinking and you have a description of the melieux of daily living as it unfolds within the unbelieving world before us.
What makes life so difficult these days is the uncertainty of the future.
What Jesus was teaching the people and especially the religious leaders at His time was that their actions showed lack of resolve and goal setting because of the uncertainty in their lives. The people were impressed by Jesus’ miracles and his wise discourses, but they did not hear his main message much less believe it: On the third day he would suffer and die for the sinful imperfections of the world. The ultimate goal was secure in Him, he was and is the only Savior from sin and all the brokenness of mankind. Everyone’s sin for all of time was/and is to be forgiven in him.
Taking a stand for Jesus these days is increasingly difficult. What is more, planning one’s life of witness, recruitment and teaching the Gospel is seen as undesirable, more than that, unacceptable.
On the basis of Jesus’ perfect sacrifice and total victory, however, you and I may be both “dreamers” and “doers.” So the advice from our Lord is not an insurmountable notion, but a joyful exercise regardless of politics, calamity or disease. Luke 14:28 For which of you, if he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, everyone who sees it will begin to ridicule him, 30 saying, ‘This fellow began to build, but was not able to finish.’
The victory of Jesus presents the only real basis for planning with Confidence.