What is the Goal of Life?

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In the Age of Sail, whether you were a pirate or a regular sailor, whenever you signed onto the crew of a ship, it was for one of following reasons:

• Wealth, (Booty for pirates!)
• Success/Status - success as a naval office, merchantmen, or privateer would often increase one's social status 
• Fame - If the ship was a pirate ship or privateer or a naval vessel that captured many prizes, you could indeed become famous!
• Education:  Learn the ropes, learn how to sail
• Power - Move up in position of authority on board
• Beauty - get a nice sun tan! 

 

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Aren't we the same today? Aren't these the things the world tells us are most important in life? The things we should all strive for?  Get an education, get a good job, buy a house, store savings for your retirement, grab more power at work, move up that corporate ladder, buy buy buy things and all the while look as good as you can!

But the Apostle Paul says in Philippians 3:7-8

But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ.

Garbage? Worthless. Empty. Worthy to be tossed aside as refuge when compared with one thing. Knowing Jesus. Knowing the captain of your ship. When we sign up to take that eternal voyage with Jesus, we still must do our duties on board. We must learn and work and grow and try to be as diligent and successful as we can. But our main goal in being aboard is so eloquently put by Paul below

For my determined purpose is that I may know Him. That I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly, and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection, and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed in spirit into His likeness even to His death.  Philippians 3:10

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 How do we get to know the Captain? Hang out with Him. He's waiting by the ship's wheel. He is in His cabin, hoping you'll come down and chat.  He's charting your course on the quarterdeck. Wherever you are on board, His loving eye is upon you, watching as a Father watches an only child. So, go to Him.

"But I've been horrible. I've done too many bad things."

But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the supreme and heavenly prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward. Philippians 3:13-14

Jesus calls you upward. Never downward. He calls you forward, never backyard. So, go to Him. Make knowing Him your life's goal. And hang on! Cause He loves great adventures!