• Editor’s note: “Spiritual leaders answer” is a weekly column inviting Kaua‘i’s religious and spiritual leaders to share their doctrine’s perspective on a suggested subject. Every Friday, a topic is printed, inviting a response. Due to space limitations, submissions are
• Editor’s note: “Spiritual leaders answer” is a weekly column inviting Kaua‘i’s religious and spiritual leaders to share their doctrine’s perspective on a suggested subject. Every Friday, a topic is printed, inviting a response. Due to space limitations, submissions are edited. Thoughts or suggestions for future topics are always welcome. Next week the suggested topic is daughters. The topic at the end of the column is for the following week.
Kahu James Fung
Lihu‘e Christian Church
Jesus taught: “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” Luke 9: 62
He spoke this pearl of wisdom to those who seem to be prepared to make a commitment to a goal down the road that takes commitment but who allow competing interests in their lives to get in the way. As long as we let things interfere with attaining our goals (looking back) we’ll never move forward. Or the furrows we plow will be a crooked mess.
Setting goals means making choices and some choices are hard. We can’t do everything. Deciding on one set of goals might mean that we can’t do something else that we also want to do. This is why being clear about our priorities is crucial. Goals are helpful in moving us forward but it’s important that we are sincere and dedicated to reaching those goals. Being half-hearted about goals is worse than having no goals at all. When we give up on our goals it can become a pattern. After awhile when we set a goal it doesn’t mean anything because we’ve inadvertently established a pattern of not following through.
Setting, working at and reaching our goals is an art. The goals we set for ourselves need to be specific, realistic and they need to be important enough for us to be fully committed to sticking with it. It’s better to plan to rise 45 minutes earlier three times a week to walk a couple of miles before breakfast, rather than set a New Year’s resolution of getting up an hour-and-a-half every day to work out and give up desserts and lose 30 pounds.
Setting goals for ourselves and attaining them is one of the best ways to become successful in many areas of life. By achieving our goals we gain the positive satisfaction of knowing that we can make a difference in shaping our lives.
Pastor Wayne Patton
Anahola Baptist Church
When our goal in life is to please the Lord it inspires confidence because we know we are on the right road. The great thing about pleasing God is that we can do it on both sides of the grave. The apostle Paul taught the Corinthians that “we make it our goal to please Him (God), whether we are at home in the body or away from it.” As long as we are alive on this earth, our goal is to please Jesus. When we die and go to heaven, we will have exactly the same goal.
Robert Merkle
Retired clergyman, Koloa
Goals provide practical content to a purpose-oriented life. Without goals it is impossible to fulfill one’s purpose. Without purpose, one’s goals whether attained or failed, are merely entertaining distractions. With goals alone we are driven; without goals we are merely drifting.
It has been said that achieved goals are like images appearing in our rear-view mirrors. Another saying is that goals are like carrots dangling on a stick out in front of us. In both instances they are mis-leading distractions. “Forgetting what lies behind we press on to the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
The implication of these sayings is that goals alone cannot serve as adequate guides for living. They serve us when giving form to an underlying sense of purpose. We can be driven and distracted by an obsession with achieving our goals or we can be drawn by the possibility of fulfilling a more encompassing purpose. Goals serve us best when they provide the content or the steps we want to take in fulfilling that intended purpose.
Our intention is like application software in a computer — it determines where we intend to apply our effort and skills, focusing our energy on what we want to do with our lives. In the absence of a clearly chosen intention we can be driven by our goals; in the absence of goals (having achieved them, or having never set them) we are destined to a lifetime of drifting.
Our purpose is to be instruments of God’s healing and creating activity in our world.
Rebecca DeRoos
Science of Mind practitioner
When I read what Emmet Fox has to say, it reminds me that I have but one goal: To hold to the truth of who I am and to trust this, that I am God’s child. Knowing this I carry strength, courage, love, understanding and all those qualities that lead to a peaceful, loving, and joyful life. But it doesn’t mean my challenges would stop here.
Emmet shares that: “It is not when things are going well that we make our progress… It is when smitten by the temptation to discouragement or even despair, we stand for what we know is the truth and say with Job, ‘Though he slay me, yet will I trust him’ (Job 13:15)”
To trust this goal comes my challenge. When a thought comes to me that I’ve prayed and certainly nothing will happen, then I’m reminded by Emmet that I “not be discouraged, but rather rejoice, for this means Satan (or temptation) is positively in his very last ditch, and now is the time to clear him out.”
With each challenge I am reminded of my goal and trust that Spirit strengthens me.
Baha’i Faith
The Baha’i of Kaua‘i
Air pollution cannot be contained in one geographical area. Diseases know no borders. It stands to reason that because mankind is becoming increasingly interdependent, that collective goals must be established to assure the well-being and survival of all.
The following is an excerpt from a document published over two decades ago by the Baha’i International Community addressing the need for common global goals.
“There is a growing appreciation that people the world over share the same essential aspirations, hopes and desires based on their common humanity. These values, some of which are stated in the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, can inspire our actions and reinforce our sense of oneness. The unity of the human race needs to be understood, promoted, explained and dramatized so that our interdependence will be seen as a necessary first step in the pursuit of the twin goals of disarmament and development.”
Topic for two
weeks from today
•Will you speak to us on team work?
•Spiritual leaders are invited to e-mail responses of three to five paragraphs to pwoolway@kauaipubco.com.
• Deadline each week is 5 p.m. Tuesday.