Why You Should Hold Your Goals Loosely

At the end of December and throughout the month of January, people tend to think about the goals they have for the next year. For a lot of people that might mean making a goal list, deciding on a New Year’s Resolution, or starting a new habit or hobby. It’s good for us to think ahead and to think of how we could be healthier, more productive, godlier, etc.

We Have Limited Control Over Our Lives

However, we have to be honest with ourselves and admit that we are not in total control over our lives. Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of things that we have control over. We should strive to be disciplined and healthy in those areas. However, there are a lot of things we don’t have control over or areas where we might have control, but it can be taken away from us.

For example, we have control over our bodies. We decide, as adults, what we want to eat and when. It’s up to us whether we want to be active or not. We’re the ones that take ourselves to the doctor and do what we can to take care of our bodies (or not). However, ultimately, we aren’t in control. At any time, we could develop a disease or disorder or whatever that can take control of certain aspects of our body away.

In my last post (which I hope you didn’t think was too pessimistic if you read it), I explained that we ultimately don’t have control over everything that happens to us in a year. There are things we can work for and they don’t come. There are things that will happen when we didn’t work for them at all.

We Work Like It Depends on Us, but Really It Depends on God

Almost everything in this life is a gift of God’s grace. It is God’s grace that allows you to have a healthy body that you can control. God’s grace is the source of every good and perfect gift in this life, even the ones that we often take for granted. We can try as we might, but we can never earn these gifts or do enough to make sure we keep them forever. They’re gifts that God gives and takes away at his leisure and in his wisdom and perfect timing.

However, that does not mean that we can no control or say over our lives and that we should just leave everything up God and make no effort whatsoever. That’s not the picture that we get from the Scriptures. We are to work as though everything depends on us, all the while praying and knowing that everything ultimately depends on God.

We’re to Try Our Best

There is evidence in the Scripture that God honors those that make an effort. In the parable of the talents, the servants who go out and use their resources to make more are praised and the one that buries his is rebuked. God expects us to use the gifts of grace we have today to do things for his glory, for the good of others, and to provide for ourselves.

Though all things are a gift of God’s grace, God doesn’t want us to just bury what he’s given to us and wait around for him to do something for us. That’s not how it works. We are still expected to put forth effort. We’re to go out there and try to get the thing done (whatever the thing may be). God rewards those who do the work he’s given them to do.

Think about the apostle Paul. He worked his tail off. He was always traveling and preaching and going out there and spreading the message of the Gospel. Paul didn’t just preach and teach either. He also supported himself by making tents. He wasn’t just sitting around waiting for God to bring people to him.

Our Paradoxical Partnership with God

It’s a paradox. God is ultimately the one who makes everything happen. He gives us the skills we use. Even our bodies and minds are given to us by God. We can accomplish nothing that he hasn’t ultimately done through us.

At the same time, God expects us to work and to try and put forth effort. We do this fully knowing that everything we do is because of God, yet we still must make the choice to do it. “We must live by this difficult truth: God does everything—and you must do everything. There may be a contradiction here in terms of formal logic, but not really: this truth sums up our entire relationship with God, and his entire revelation to humanity in the Bible.” (Jacques Ellul, Reason for Being, pg 106)

We’re in a unique partnership with God in everything we do. It often doesn’t make sense to us completely, but that doesn’t mean it’s not true. The quote above is right, that’s the whole message of the Bible. It’s confusing and strange, but it’s what God says.

What That Means for Your Goals

So what does that mean for you? Quite simply, it means you should do all you can this year to make this your best year ever. Make those goals. Start a new habit. Use every tool at your disposal to do everything you can to accomplish the things that you think God wants you to do.

However, while you do this, hold those plans of yours loosely. Don’t take yourself too seriously. Don’t forget that you ultimately can do nothing on your own to accomplish whatever it is you want to accomplish. Be open to changes that might happen this year. Don’t get discouraged when things change or you aren’t able to accomplish what you wanted to.

Do what you can this year to do the things that God has placed on your heart. Do them well. At the same time, remember that he is ultimately in control. The outcome you get is the outcome he wants you to have. It’s not about where you are at the year’s end. It’s about all the things you learned about Him along the way.

Photo by Estée Janssens on Unsplash