Looking for Goals in Life--by Linden Malki

One of the bits of advice that adults often offer children and students is that they need to have goals in their lives. Some kids have demanding goals that they work for singlemindedly, some see something that looks or sounds interesting, some have ambitions that are unrealistic, some are pushed by parents or other adults to fulfill their own goals, some haven't the foggiest idea. Some--not too many, I suspect,  pray for God's guidance.

The whole idea of goals is probably more common in western countries; children in the Middle East and eastwards, have traditionally no choice of their future. In most cases, you are born with your state in life and very few break out of it, probably more so with the modern information culture.  Some years ago, I spent a summer in Jordan, that included spending time with a missionary cousin who was head of a hospital up in northern Jordan near the Syrian border. He got a call from the hospital during dinner, as the doctor on duty needed help; he had been pushed into medical school by his local family when he had really hoped to become an artist.

 We don't often realize that God has goals for us as well. He will let us know, if we listen, what it is
that God is calling us to. Sometimes we realize, when we have what we thought we wanted, that we need to back out and listen. Sometimes what we thought was the right track blows up in our faces. What we usually need to do, but hesitate a bit is to stop and ask God what gifts He gave us and what he wants us to do with them.  When I was in high school, I was into science and interested in the space program, then just building up. I started college as a physics major, started with a year of basic physics and calculus. I realized before the end of the year that it would cost of all my time, and I really didn't want to do lab reports until 2am any more. I was lucky, because I was also well into the math, which became my major.My first decision for the next year was to take as much as I could of what really interested me, with the idea that I would have background in whatever I was led to in the next three years. What eventually happened is that I had an the opportunity to spend a summer in the Middle East and meet the man I married. He had an auto repair shop, and I had a background in physics, chemistry, history, library cataloging, turned out to be the best background I could have had. I am convinced that God knew what I could learn to do well, and put me in a place to do it--a place that also gave our kids opportunities to find their goals as well.