Meeting Expectations
As for me, my life has already been poured out as an offering to God. The time of my death is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful. And now the prize awaits me—the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on the day of his return. And the prize is not just for me but for all who eagerly look forward to his appearing. 2 Timothy 4:6-8
Many of us have either gotten or are preparing to receive our year-end review. In it, we will hear how well we performed and get some insights potentially on both positives that we can leverage more into or the infamous ‘areas of opportunity’ that we need to work on. In my role, I am evaluated on whether I have met, exceeded, or partially met expectations. While I work hard to meet and exceed those expectations every year, there are times I did not hit the mark. While those are isolated incidents, I, being both fair and critical of my own performance, was disappointed when those occurred, and worked to ensure they did not happen in the future.
Along those lines, it led me to wonder about how I would rate myself in my journey of faith this past year. There were areas where I did show growth like in my marriage and within my church group. I was more generous with my time and energy, giving to others and sharing both love and fellowship with them. There were also areas where I realized I should have been more effective. While I learned more about God’s word and dug deeper for understanding, I needed to be more consistent in my daily reading. While my prayers were better, I needed to pray more with my wife. As I thought about today’s devotion, I thought about many things to write about, but what it boiled down to was I needed to evaluate where I was with God and look for ways that I could mirror His wants for me or like Jesus prayed, “Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” (Mark 14:36b) It came down to one area for me to work on. God is relentless in His pursuit of me and my heart. Yet, I am not as relentless in my pursuit of Him as He is of me. Call this my ‘area of opportunity.’ Pursuit of God is neither to be like Him nor to replace Him with myself. It is instead to be deliberate and determined to better live out His plans for my life.
We each have our own race to run for God, and our goal is to simply run it. One of the best lessons I got from my father was to never focus on what those around you are doing. He would tell me to focus on me and give my best effort. Now I might disagree with him today noting that it is important to see what others do particularly when God is involved, but he was right with the idea that you never worry about what others are doing. He would say, “You always focus on what you, Kent, need to do.” Along those lines, we must not get caught up in what others say about what we do or how right or wrong they might be. Our focus is to be on what Paul said to Timothy, which is to live a life that “has already been poured out as an offering to God.” This is not the hope. It is the benchmark, goal, or expectation. If we are not hitting that mark, we are falling short. That is not easy for any of us to hear, and for me, it is tough to admit I simply must do better. But the purpose here is not to make us feel bad for we serve a loving God full of grace. It is to look within and say, “Yes, God, you expect more of me,” or, “Lord, help me meet this lofty expectation.” After all, it is Paul who also said, “For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.” (Philippians 4:13)
God is with us every step of the way. As we start the new year, let us remember that we have been given an opportunity to run the race that much further. The words of Paul to Timothy are not to show us where we fall short. They are to motivate us for that ultimate prize: that crown of righteousness. Wherever you are in your relationship with God, let us make better of it like His love for us. Where in your relationship with God only partially meets the requirement? What changes will you make this year to better meet what God’s plan is for your life? My prayer is that we are determined to do more for God in meeting His expectation. Amen.