LIVE FORWARD

 One day this summer, while meditating in the morning light of the North Dakota sun, I thought about goals; and that led me to thoughts about the Apostle James ben Zebedee – The Apostle John’s brother. Here are some of those thoughts.

Goal-setting, is hard-wired into human beings made in God’s image. Jesus Himself is described as the greatest of goal-setters (Hebrews 12:2). So, no surprise there. However, the reason my thoughts turned to James rise from a remark by Oswald Chambers. We should never have the thought that our dreams of success are God’s purpose for us. He went on to say, God’s training is now, not later. By way of clarification, he explained: If I can stay calm, faithful, and unconfused while in the middle of the turmoil of life, the goal of the purpose of God is being accomplished in me.

Why all of this brought James to mind should be self-evident if you remember Acts 12:1-2. Around eleven years after the beginning of the Church at Pentecost (Acts 2), James seems have become a vocal spokesman of the fledgling movement. His profile was high enough so he caught Herod’s attention, and that resulted in the apostle’s execution. Whatever goals and dreams may have driven James during those eleven years, are not recorded. He died leaving behind no trophy to be recorded in Luke’s account. Indeed, there may have been several unfinished goals which others would have to pick up. However, James did leave behind close to four-thousand days of “now.” Days in which God worked to transform him into the image of Christ (Romans 8:29); now moments which touched who knows how many lives.

It can be safely said that the bulk of the New Testament has to do with our ultimate conformity to the character of Jesus in a way which impacts the lives of others in the daily “now.” This grabs my thinking because of two present goal-changers which confront my life and the lives of those of my generation. The first is the Coronavirus. The second is the steady shrinkage of our future time-line. Both can make us face some mornings with a blank stare unless we keep in mind the supremacy of today over tomorrow which Jesus gives in his counsel concerning worry (Matthew 6:19-34).

If time is hanging heavily on your hands these days, and even if you are a front-line essential worker for whom there is not enough time, remember – who you are at the moment is God’s focus and will have the greatest bearing on what goals you accomplish and even on those which you “fail” to reach.  Ironically, it is how we live today that enables us to live forward.