Happy Sabbath!

In virtually any undertaking, one of the keys to success is goal setting. Goals drive progress, they help focus our efforts, they make us more efficient, and they are essential to keeping forward momentum.

When it comes to running, goal setting is done with a long-term focus. This is because proper training takes months. This means to run a marathon it is recommended that you put in a minimum 5-6 months of training, just to finish.  At the professional level, most athletes place winning the Olympics as their primary goal. This means hundreds and thousands of hours are dedicated to reaching peak performance for one race. Those who can keep this goal constantly in front of them, are more likely to succeed.

A good example of this was evident by American, Galen Rupp in the 2012 London Olympics. At those games, Galen took home the silver medal in the 10,000-meter run. It was the first American medal for in this event in 48 years. While this was an amazing feat, this race was the result of years of dedication and focus. Galen Rupp was a stand-out runner in high school and college, but what set him apart from other American standouts was that his counterparts burned out in their career. The key to this was Galen and his coach, Alberto Salazar, taking a long-term approach. As early as 2002 (Rupp was only 16 years old at the time), they set as their goal the 2012 Olympics. This meant when other runners were pushing their training and getting injured, or running race after race to collect prize money, Galen made the decision to hold back to not distract from his goal. He never lost sight of his goal and viewed every run, every race, every day leading up to it, through the lens of the 2012 Olympics.

The right goal, that is held in its proper priority, becomes a crucial element to success, both in our physical lives and in our spiritual lives. In our discussion about finishing our race and not receiving a "DNF," having our goal firmly set in our mind becomes essential. So much so, that it takes a spot in our altered "DNF." The "N" in our new acronym stands for "Never lose sight of our goal."

This is something expressed in many places in scripture, but Matthew 6:33 presents this quite succinctly "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you." In terms of our spiritual race, this becomes the lens that we view the world around us. The context makes this undeniably clear. Our goal is not accumulation of physical wealth (verse 19-20). Our goal is not dual in nature - that is partly physical and partly spiritual (verse 24). Our goal is not even sustaining our physical existence (Verses 25-32). The goal that God has shown to us is entrance into the Kingdom of God! That should drive all other aspects of our lives. This may mean sacrificing short term physical benefits that could distract from our goal.

If we desire to finish the race, we can never lose sight of what God is offering us. That finish line, the goal we have been called to obtain, must be kept at our highest priority. Coming down to, even the level of our thoughts (Colossians 3:1-3). If we maintain this vision, we will view the world around us and question every decision by asking "does this draw me and others closer to the Kingdom of God?" The better we get at this, the more likely we will be to finish our race.

Praying that this Sabbath is uplifting to you all!

Devin Schulz