G.O.A.L.


As an educator, by far the most gratifying reward for the work is for a former student coming back and expressing thanks and appreciation for the role I played in their life. Don't get me wrong...I like getting a check every two weeks, however the best deposit and return on investment is the positive difference we have made in eternal accounts. Today was one of these days.

My former student is a truck driver. I don't try to steer everyone of my students to college. It is not where some of my students should be going. Instead, they are better advised to use the gifts that they have to drive the road they are equipped for. I know that I should not by driving trucks for a living based on my lack of depth perception. I prefer being in the seat of my desk. I would suck driving a tractor trailer, and dangerous at that.

All labor and work has value, if done with excellence. My former student mentioned a trucking maxim  acronym. It is called: Get Out And Look (G.O.A.L.). This advice pertains to when a truck driver is in a tight spot and rather than assume that the steering of the truck is on track from the vantage point of the cab, get out of the truck and look at it from another angle and get the big picture. That informs the seat and the steering.

As Christians, it is exceedingly useful to get out of the cab of the pews and at least step back and try to examine the needs of people in our community and then figure out how we can steer into these issues with an informed biblical perspective. I know this sounds so obvious yet we seem to miss the need=service linkage. We are more often driving around without trailers, meeting in cabs, and going around in circles. No pull in the community, literally.  

We cannot presume we know how God might use us to meet needs. But, we have to first find out what they are in real time and space. Evangelism is ultimately not a Billy Graham-like preaching crusade, instead it is typically more 1-1 interaction. Good works drives people to consider Jesus...the message is driven home by service.               

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