A Better Goal and a Greater Purpose
Jesus and Jiu-Jitsu // Devotional #76
In my short time training jiu-jitsu, I’ve already noticed something to be true: without a goal, it’s hard to succeed (especially as a white belt). Because jiu-jitsu is overwhelmingly about dealing with moment-by-moment adversity, failure is always close at hand: failure to get the grip you want, failure to position your body correctly, and failure to leverage your weight at the right time. I could go on.
Failure is intrinsic to jiu-jitsu in a unique way, making victory that much sweeter and training that much more challenging. Even when we win, we’re aware of the things we could’ve done, should’ve done, and definitely shouldn’t have done. This is why goals matter so much in training: without them, our constant failures can keep us from seeing the growth we might be experiencing.
Maybe your goal for one class was to successfully sweep a larger opponent, escape side control, or use lasso guard effectively. Instead of walking out of class and counting how many times you tapped, if you set the right goal, you can walk away feeling like you accomplished more than just getting your face smashed in. The right goal changes everything because it defines what success is. If properly defined, goals can make growth manageable and achievable, motivating us even more as we stack win upon win, not only on the mats but in our lives as well.
While goals are great, they can only take us so far. They can improve our performance, clarify our efforts, and provide a sense of scope and sequence to our time, but there’s something our goals can’t do: they can’t give us our purpose. In their right place, goals give us short-term clarity on next steps, but they’re deficient to answer the question of why we are here.
Yet in an age and culture consumed with Project Self, that’s exactly the trade we’ve made. Without ever spending much time asking the bigger question of why we exist, we’ve instead opted for surface-level goals to fill the space purpose once occupied. We’ve settled for better bodies, bank accounts, and skills while our souls ache for something more.
With our goals as our guide, we live meandering lives, constantly striving to reach our next goal, hoping it will eventually lead us to a better version of our job, our marriage, our family, our lives, or even our very selves. We spend our days trying to lose that extra weight, get the next promotion, hit our next PR, or whatever else we set our sights on, forgetting that our days are meant for more than collecting achievements we hope will give our lives meaning.
But even when we reach the other side of our goal, we’re like a kid who finally gets the toy he’s asked for; we realize it didn’t scratch the itch we thought it would. So we set new goals to temporarily ease the growing sense that we’re living for little more than whatever our discipline can achieve on its own. Though we yearn for more, we live for less.
Goals can’t carry the weight of our purpose. We weren’t created to simply become more efficient, exceed our KPIs at work, dial in our macros, or earn the next belt. We were made for more, and we know it.
Read what Peter writes in 1 Peter 2:9-10 when he talks about our purpose and identity in Christ:
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (ESV)
Peter begins with our identity: a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession. This is Peter’s way of saying that in Christ, God has completely transformed our identity. He has made us chosen, royal, holy, and His. Once we were not a people, but now we are His people. What is our identity in Christ? Beloved of God, rescued by His mercy and transformed by His grace.
Peter roots our purpose in our identity, telling us why we exist: that we may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light. Because we belong to God, we now live for Him, letting His glory set the direction of our days rather than our goals. Our purpose and identity are wrapped up in Christ alone, where we are redeemed by Him and for Him.
Yet we so often try to get from our goals what God has already given us in Christ. We set our goals as a kind of law, deriving our value, meaning, purpose, and identity from how efficiently and effectively we achieve them, turning something meant for life into an instrument of judgment. It’s legalism, just dressed up with a six-pack. But our temporary goals can never measure up to our eternal purpose in Christ, and they can’t give us the freedom or transformation that only He can.
It’s only when our goals are set on pursuing our purpose in Christ that we find them to be the gift they were intended to be: a way for us to proclaim the excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light.
With God’s glory as the firm and fixed purpose of our lives, we can live not for what our goals might get for us in the short term, but in light of God’s eternal purpose to reconcile all things to Him. We can live with eternity in view, pursuing a better goal and a greater purpose because He is the prize that we seek.
Take time to consider these questions:
How have you tried to get from your goals what God’s given you in Jesus (purpose, identity, meaning, value, etc.)?
When you forget your purpose in Christ, what goals do you typically gravitate toward?
How can you pursue your purpose to “proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness and into His marvelous light” today?
As you end your time, reflect on God’s eternal purpose in Christ, set in motion from the beginning. Consider God’s goodness and grace in including us in His purpose to be ambassadors of His mercy and recipients of Christ’s righteousness. Pray for boldness to proclaim God’s glory in our lives and through Gospel-centered goals that cast our days in light of eternity.
