Goals
A Reese Piece from Robert…
When Reese was barely a toddler, Mindy and I took her to Tennessee for a preaching conference.
Our goals for the conference were the same as they had always been for trips like this: 1) have a productive time of learning; 2) have fun; 3) see the sights, and 4) eat local food.
But now there was something very new in the mix. To be precise, there was a small, fully-mobile, and highly-assertive child. Reese was a new wrinkle, a positive and challenging new wrinkle, we were going to have to handle.
For most of the week the “new wrinkle” didn’t interfere too much with the “old goals”.
In other words, Reese took it pretty easy on us. On top of that, she even unveiled some new skills. She said multiple Dada-s, threw in some Puppy-s, and even mastered the art of waving Bye-Bye.
But it wasn’t all great.
The Reese wrinkle forced us to re-frame how to achieve our classic goals. For instance, it was the first time we’d tried to share a hotel room with Reese.
This was not fun when it came time for bed. You see, as a toddler Reese didn’t like to sleep, and she was addicted to attention and new experiences.
So, as we tried to settle into the hotel room for the night, Reese stood in her crib a few feet from our faces…and she let us have it.
At maximum volume. Screams and squawks and all sorts of curse words bellowed in some unknown tongue we did not know.
I’m sure the rest of the hotel was most unhappy. I know Mindy and I were. And, I know Reese was too.
For the purposes of this essay, it all boiled down to one fairly simple question:
How were we going to adjust and adapt to achieve the goal of a successful trip for this new situation?
In this particular case, would we share the bed with Reese? Let her complain herself to sleep? Stay up all night playing with her? How would we adjust? (I think we probably let her sleep with us.)
The Bible actually has quite a bit of this old-goal-meeting-new-situation-begging-for-new-guidelines sort of thing in it.
From the first stories in Genesis a deep goal is for God and God’s creation to live in a relationship of peace, joy, and love.
By Genesis 3 that goal is met with a new situation (a bad one that involves a serpent and a piece of fruit), and the critical question is: “How will things adapt so that fellowship between God and creation can be shared in a new situation?”
In Exodus 20 we see it again. In this case something new (and good) happens. God’s people are freed from slavery in Egypt. So, at the holy mountain God gives them new guidelines for the ancient goal of how to live well together with God. We call these guidelines the Ten Commandments.
When we turn to the New Testament, we see this same sort of process still happening. For instance, look at Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount” from Matthew’s telling of the gospel story.
A new situation has dawned; Jesus – God with us – has come. How will he flex the guidelines, the commandments of the Exodus for the new situation? How has his coming changed the way fellowship between God and humanity can be shared?
The entire Book of Acts is one, lengthy tale of this process happening under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. How will guidelines flex as the call of Jesus stretches beyond the Jewish world to the ends of the earth?
It’s all over the place in the Bible.
What should the guidelines be for you as an individual so you can have deep fellowship with God, with others, and with yourself?
What should the guidelines be for a community in this place at this point in time?
A Reese’s Revenge from Karyssa…
I do not remember any of this.
But, I have always liked hotel rooms and travelling. And I’ve always hated going to sleep. Even after I stopped fighting going to bed I still have had a hard time getting to sleep.
It can be even harder to fall asleep when we’re travelling, when we’re in a hotel room. My thoughts are buzzing around. The mattress is different. I’m worrying about getting enough sleep so I can have the energy necessary to trek around the next day.
You know, you had goals for the trip in Tennessee, and so did I. Different goals. And I forced you to meet them. At least sometimes.
That’s still the way it is. We went to Los Angeles a while back, and there was a goal to go to one of the biggest American Girl stores in America. That was not your goal. It was mine.
But we figured it out. We met my goals and yours too. We adjusted.
It’s kind of like moving. You have your ways of doing things, your guidelines, your procedures for getting your goals done in the old house – eating, cleaning, storing stuff, that kind of thing.
But then you’re in a new house, and you don’t know how everything works, but you have all the same goals, and you need to figure out new ways to get them done, to meet the goals.
Off the top of my head, my guidelines, my procedures for getting along with others and having good fellowship with them are:
My procedures for getting along with God are:
Yes, Dad, it’s OK you wrote this about me.
When Reese was barely a toddler, Mindy and I took her to Tennessee for a preaching conference.
Our goals for the conference were the same as they had always been for trips like this: 1) have a productive time of learning; 2) have fun; 3) see the sights, and 4) eat local food.
But now there was something very new in the mix. To be precise, there was a small, fully-mobile, and highly-assertive child. Reese was a new wrinkle, a positive and challenging new wrinkle, we were going to have to handle.
For most of the week the “new wrinkle” didn’t interfere too much with the “old goals”.
In other words, Reese took it pretty easy on us. On top of that, she even unveiled some new skills. She said multiple Dada-s, threw in some Puppy-s, and even mastered the art of waving Bye-Bye.
But it wasn’t all great.
The Reese wrinkle forced us to re-frame how to achieve our classic goals. For instance, it was the first time we’d tried to share a hotel room with Reese.
This was not fun when it came time for bed. You see, as a toddler Reese didn’t like to sleep, and she was addicted to attention and new experiences.
So, as we tried to settle into the hotel room for the night, Reese stood in her crib a few feet from our faces…and she let us have it.
At maximum volume. Screams and squawks and all sorts of curse words bellowed in some unknown tongue we did not know.
I’m sure the rest of the hotel was most unhappy. I know Mindy and I were. And, I know Reese was too.
For the purposes of this essay, it all boiled down to one fairly simple question:
How were we going to adjust and adapt to achieve the goal of a successful trip for this new situation?
In this particular case, would we share the bed with Reese? Let her complain herself to sleep? Stay up all night playing with her? How would we adjust? (I think we probably let her sleep with us.)
The Bible actually has quite a bit of this old-goal-meeting-new-situation-begging-for-new-guidelines sort of thing in it.
From the first stories in Genesis a deep goal is for God and God’s creation to live in a relationship of peace, joy, and love.
By Genesis 3 that goal is met with a new situation (a bad one that involves a serpent and a piece of fruit), and the critical question is: “How will things adapt so that fellowship between God and creation can be shared in a new situation?”
In Exodus 20 we see it again. In this case something new (and good) happens. God’s people are freed from slavery in Egypt. So, at the holy mountain God gives them new guidelines for the ancient goal of how to live well together with God. We call these guidelines the Ten Commandments.
When we turn to the New Testament, we see this same sort of process still happening. For instance, look at Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount” from Matthew’s telling of the gospel story.
A new situation has dawned; Jesus – God with us – has come. How will he flex the guidelines, the commandments of the Exodus for the new situation? How has his coming changed the way fellowship between God and humanity can be shared?
The entire Book of Acts is one, lengthy tale of this process happening under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. How will guidelines flex as the call of Jesus stretches beyond the Jewish world to the ends of the earth?
It’s all over the place in the Bible.
What should the guidelines be for you as an individual so you can have deep fellowship with God, with others, and with yourself?
What should the guidelines be for a community in this place at this point in time?
A Reese’s Revenge from Karyssa…
I do not remember any of this.
But, I have always liked hotel rooms and travelling. And I’ve always hated going to sleep. Even after I stopped fighting going to bed I still have had a hard time getting to sleep.
It can be even harder to fall asleep when we’re travelling, when we’re in a hotel room. My thoughts are buzzing around. The mattress is different. I’m worrying about getting enough sleep so I can have the energy necessary to trek around the next day.
You know, you had goals for the trip in Tennessee, and so did I. Different goals. And I forced you to meet them. At least sometimes.
That’s still the way it is. We went to Los Angeles a while back, and there was a goal to go to one of the biggest American Girl stores in America. That was not your goal. It was mine.
But we figured it out. We met my goals and yours too. We adjusted.
It’s kind of like moving. You have your ways of doing things, your guidelines, your procedures for getting your goals done in the old house – eating, cleaning, storing stuff, that kind of thing.
But then you’re in a new house, and you don’t know how everything works, but you have all the same goals, and you need to figure out new ways to get them done, to meet the goals.
Off the top of my head, my guidelines, my procedures for getting along with others and having good fellowship with them are:
- Having my own room;
- Being flexible with other people’s agendas and needs. I’m a student at school for seven hours a day with 23 very different classmates and 23 different sets of goals;
- Being willing to receive kindness and help from other people and not push it away.
My procedures for getting along with God are:
- Acknowledging I’m not the top of the universe; I’m not God;
- Treating God and others the way I want to be treated. How you treat others is how you treat God. It’s all intertwined.
- Thinking about the way I can help and be a part of God’s mission. How can God influence me to change the world in a way that God likes?
Yes, Dad, it’s OK you wrote this about me.