Introduction
We recently had a real event on our doorstep.
This was because we will soon be getting fibre optic internet and the company shot the fibre optic line under the road onto our property and then into our house. The flexible pipe was drilled or driven through the ground with compressed air, I have no idea what exactly they were doing ;-)
After they had finished, some neighbours in the street behind us had no electricity.
An employee from EVL came first and they drilled holes in the road because you can measure where something is contaminated. After several attempts, a road construction team arrived and tore up the road in front of our property. It was a funny picture. One construction worker was sitting in the excavator, one was holding the remote control of a gigantic hoover and one was working in the pit. And about 8 electricians stood around and watched. Afterwards, our property also had to be torn up because the damaged cable ran just below our property. I got my camera and took a few pictures.
That went on until half past seven or so.
Why am I showing this here today?
I had a few thoughts about this.
The goal was fibre optics for our house and that was all approved, etc. The fibre optic company didn't want to tear up the entire road, which would have been a huge effort, but they drove this flexible pipe under the road. That is also state of the art. They probably also had plans showing where existing lines are in the ground, but these plans don't show how deep these lines are, at least not in the plan that an EVL employee showed me.
So they had to take a risk to achieve the goal of "fibre optics in our homes", and it created problems.
And I would like to think a little about goals with you.
Goals in our lives
You may have goals in your life, both important and less important. A goal may be a holiday that you are preparing for, a student's goal may be to hopefully graduate from school, it may be a renovation project or an entrepreneur may be thinking about how much turnover he wants to achieve in the coming year in order to keep the company running well.
And you work towards such goals. Goals can also help you to structure your life, especially if you are somehow dissatisfied, at least that's what you read from various method trainers and life counsellors.
I don't find it that easy. There are already some subject areas where I'm dissatisfied and don't really know what I should do or what goals would make sense.
There are many verses in the Bible that say something about goals and I would like to start with a well-known one (Joshua 1:8; D&C):
I have deliberately chosen this translation, which is bumpy in German, because it explicitly uses the word "Ziel". In other translations, this has been expressed in other words.
Of course, this verse is not meant magically, in the sense that I read the Bible in the morning and then have success throughout the day, or as a magic formula, i.e. if I always say Bible verses, then everything works out.
I think this verse is meant for the long term. If the Bible is our companion through life, then it will change us so that our priorities and goals also change and that we will also be successful with God in the long term.
This knowledge is a comfort, but nevertheless, success in the short or medium term is sometimes not very far away in our lives.
But somehow you need a goal. In the book of Job, a person in the Bible who had really lost everything and was at the bottom, this Job said (Job 6:11, NL):
The "what for" question is posed negatively here: What am I doing this for, there's no point anymore. Everyone has probably experienced this feeling at some point. Even if you can't name a specific sub-goal, you still somehow need a general goal, a purpose.
The big goal
There are a few major goals for Christians. The first is the foundation of everything.
Jesus Christ is the most important goal (Romans 10:4; New Testament):
And at the end of our lives, we will be completely with him, as God has promised us (1 Thessalonians 5:24; New Testament):
These two verses summarise our overall goal in life quite well.
And then there are goals for our lifestyle (1 Corinthians 14:1a; New Testament):
and also 2 Corinthians 5:9; NGÜ
You probably take a deep breath when you hear sentences like this, but such goals are of course guidelines for your own development. If you think of it as "I'll do it tomorrow!", then of course it won't work. Pressure and perfectionism almost never work in reality.
In the Bible, Christians are sometimes compared to plants, to a vine or a tree. These plants are already partially pruned, watered, etc. by the gardener, but they produce fruit through growth, not through performance and pressure.
It is similar with the target mission, as described by Paul in Colossians 1, 28.29:
That is also a statement that cannot be lived in pure form. This proclamation must be integrated into life, life itself must also somehow be a proclamation. You can't just stand somewhere and preach at people, especially as that doesn't reach many people at all, although I admire the courage of street preachers. You first have to dare to do that.
The concrete goal
How do we do it concretely? For the church in particular, there must somehow be common goals (Romans 12:16; New Testament):
Yes, that's true, but even that still seems too general.
What are the goals for our community?
Have you ever wondered why the contents and values of the Christian church are described in great detail in the Bible, but the outward appearance, structures or special days are hardly described at all?
There are no church election rules in the Bible, there is no indication of how many elders or deacons there must be. There is also no such thing as a pastor, at least not with the profile that we often have here in Germany. Not much is said about the church service either. Christmas doesn't exist in the Bible either, nor was Easter celebrated in the Bible.
I am sure that this is the case because the Bible and the church are timeless. The message is valid until Jesus returns. And it is our task to transport this message and the church appropriately into our time and society without compromising on content. And when society changes, we have to make adjustments.
It's not about change for the sake of change, that doesn't make sense either, but this awareness that the community has to change if the society we live in changes, that's what I want from us and I'm not excluding myself because I'm someone who is quite attached to the familiar.
And it can also happen with changes, with innovations, with new concrete goals that we have to go through unknown regions and depths and, as with our fibre optic installation, something breaks and has to be repaired, perhaps even at great expense. Perhaps there are also sensitivities within ourselves that come up and interfere with changes. And, of course, we don't want to break anything - it was also stupid for the neighbours to have no electricity for a few hours. That can happen in unknown, unfamiliar territory.
But in terms of the goal, fibre optics are worthwhile ;-)
Summary
Let me summarise.
- Goals in our lives can be meaningful, whether they are important or less important goals. The
- main goal for our lives is to be justified before God through faith in Jesus and to be with him forever after our death.
- The main goals in our lives are a life that is determined by love, a life that pleases God and a life in which Jesus Christ is passed on. These are long-term guidelines for our lives .
- We need to find common goals for our church, how to move forward and how to adapt our church to today's times without compromising the message . It is necessary and worthwhile, but can cause difficulties that need to be resolved.