A goal-driven life

Each day unfolds new purposes in one’s life as the routine continues and we face opportunities for improvement or remain stagnant when driven by doubt or fear. The new day bespeaks of the inner mission to discover God’s will in performing one’s tasks and building a community of truth, love, justice and peace. In working together, the spirit of unity will be more strongly cemented, while constant prayer will strengthen our spiritual bond as God’s children and brothers and sisters to one another, especially to ‘strangers’ in need. This is the fruit of a maturing faith that relies on the strength of the Spirit, that always sees God’s power and mercy—and not self-power—behind any good deed done.

St. Paul shows us how his faith made him unshakable in pursuing his task, when he wrote to Timothy: “The Lord stood by my side and gave me strength, so that through me the preaching task might be completed and all the nations might hear the gospel” (2 Tim 4:17). This is the gift God endows on those focused on proclaiming and witnessing to the Good News. The Lord makes the Spirit alive to enable the faithful disciple to be effective in accomplishing his/her daily mission to spread God’s love and mercy by word and deed.

The mature Christian always tries to decipher the acts of God’s goodness in life’s ups and downs. In this vein, tragedies are perceived as blessings. He/she listens to God’s call to be an instrument of evangelization, whatever be the events that may take place. Armed with a self-forgetful, self-giving charity, the ‘Christified’ child of God makes alive the Kingdom of God in the most ordinary circumstances of life. This person of faith also strives to act as a member of a community/parish in communion with others who are also bent on acknowledging Christ’s presence in one another. This is the way of a goal-driven life animated by the Spirit.