Kevin got home a little earlier yesterday than usual. Having just finished getting the kids’ stuff put away, I was actually still in the middle of laundry, and catching up on email and other work stuff, when he walked in. His face is always a welcome sight, but because my heart was a little sad, it was a particular delight.

We sat in a companionable silence for a while, after we said hello and he got changed. But once dinner rolled around, we sat across from each other at the table and started talking. It’s been an interesting couple of years for us. We discussed some of the things that have happened, and some of the changes that are coming up, and as I sat there, cutting my steak, I realized something. We’ve been stuck in a reactive mode for a long, LONG time. When one thing after another hits you, it’s easy to feel like all you can do is hunker down and defend, defend, defend.

But you know what?

When you do nothing but defend, you go absolutely nowhere. You find it hard to look ahead or even try to make a real plan because you’re constantly braced for the next blow.

Suddenly, in the middle of Kevin’s sentence, I blurted out…

Let’s make a goal!

He looked at me kind of funny, because, “hey, out of the blue, babe,” but the realization that we hadn’t been setting any family goals like we used to had really made me sit up and take notice.

So, over the rest of dinner, we made some fun goals, and in that moment, I felt us begin to inch forward. With our decision toward change has come the freedom to take off the shoulder pads and other protective gear and pick up the ball.

And it feels GREAT.

Sometimes circumstances are beyond our control and the prudent measure is to defend. But if we stop making goals, forgetting that eventually the game will turn around, we won’t gain any ground when it does. We are never to stop moving forward. Just ask the apostle Paul about “pressing on toward the goal” or Christ, who said it was His very food to accomplish the work He was sent to do.

I woke up this morning excited. There’s a goal ahead…ahead.

Let’s move.

“Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.” John 4:34 ESV

“I’m not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don’t get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I’ve got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. I’m off and running, and I’m not turning back.” Philippians 3:12-14 MSG