Presented by Lauren Stibgen

Have you set some goals lately: personal or professional? How are they impacting how you show God’s love? Goals are important: personally and professionally. In the context of work, goals help us understand our part in a larger vision or project that impact our organization. Outside of work, goals can help us focus on achieving in other aspects of our life like health or finance.

I would argue any good goal can go bad, especially when it takes us away from what is most important to God. Again, Scripture tells us God wants us to love him and love others as we love ourselves.

How full is your goal set both at work and personally? Is this filling your time so much that you are not able to love God or love others? We live in a metric-based, title-hungry culture. When we set goals, how are we being measured, and what is the reward?

When the measurement and reward become more important than God, we start walking down that slippery slope.

Are you in sales? Perhaps you take an extra lead or two that will help win a trip or sweeten a bonus, but this causes a colleague to miss their goal by a margin. Or maybe you end up staying late to get more done and skip a church commitment.

Are you working a lot of overtime to make your metrics look better than others at work and miss time connecting with a friend in prayer?

Perhaps you feel like you are pulling a lot of weight on a project and complain about a colleague, not knowing they are suffering a personal hardship.

Personally, have you set goals that compromise your time spent in God’s Word, or are you doing activities you enjoy but keep you away from showing love to your family?

Measurement and reward: They are not bad but can become bad when they are not balanced with our thoughts about God and our love for others.

We are already winning in the eyes of God if we have accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior. How can we show this to others? Maybe you pass those sales leads along, help balance the workload to make your team look better or ask questions when a colleague is falling behind on a project. We are called to walk differently. Our reward is much greater than any trip or title we could ever achieve here on earth!

How can we show others this type of love? Not the pizza and coffee love. Not the “I love my dog” love. Not the “I love the way the color looks on you” love. I mean the “I want to share life with you” love—the proverbial “I would give to someone event if it hurt” love. The love that weeps with those who weep and rejoices when others rejoice.

When we are too busy, it is easy to give the glossy heart and flowers love. It is harder to focus on and think about how God wants us to show his love to others.