Reward versus Goal

On Monday evening my family and I took a dinner drive to the ocean. It had been one of those days, if you know what I mean, and a quick get-a-way was in store. Pt. Pleasant this time of year is a great place to be in my book. It’s cool. People are clothed. There’s free parking. There’s available parking, and you can have any space on the beach you want. And so we parked at Jenkinson’s Aquarium right off the boardwalk, loaded up the stroller with dinner and beach toys and walked our way to the beach. It was colder on the shore than we anticipated so we didn’t stay too long. We set up shop on the beach, prayed over our dinner and ate.

At one point after dinner Marci and I stood close to one another gazing out at the ocean pondering all the power of our awesome God. Standing there at that moment looking out at the ocean was the reason we went to the ocean that day. Our goal in going to the ocean that day was to stand before the ocean and be reminded of our smallness. It was to experience God’s power as seen in the ocean. It was to ask God to put our lives back into perspective for a few moments.

I remember glancing to my right as we stood there and watching Mason dig in the sand with his toy truck. If you could have seen him at that moment he had his back to the ocean, his face toward the boardwalk and his eyes fixed in the deepening sand as he dug. I felt like saying, “Mason, have you seen the ocean?”

For Marci and I, playing on the beach and watching the kids dig in the sand was the reward for having gone to the ocean; but it wasn’t the goal. In other words we did not set out to play on the beach and build sandcastles. We set out to see the ocean. Playing on the beach was simply the reward. But if you were to ask Mason why he went to the ocean he probably would have said, “To build sandcastles of course”.

You see the youthful mind can innocently confuse reward with goal. And if we are not careful reward can become our goal too. This happens all the time. Consider these items;

1.       World Peace: We all want world peace, but world peace is not the goal. World peace is the reward that comes with the goal of loving Jesus.

2.      Strong Families: We all want strong families, but strong families are not the goal. Strong families are the reward God gives to parents who love Him.

3.      Civil Rights: We all want justice in our land, but justice is not the goal. Justice is the reward that comes when a society builds life around Jesus.

4.      Freedom: All of us want freedom. But freedom is not the goal. Freedom is the reward people receive as a result of following Jesus.

5.      Balanced budgets, health care, education: All things we want. But they are not the goal. They are the reward of a society for whom life revolves around Jesus! We don’t spend more than we have. We care for one another’s health. We teacher our children about life. We take responsibility for those who brought us into the world and those we brought into the world.

6.      Or how about Eternal Salvation: Everyone needs the eternal salvation Jesus offers. But eternal salvation is not the goal. Eternal salvation is the reward for following Jesus.

Listen folks, when I married Marci I did not marry her for the inheritance I might one day receive from her family. I married Marci to have more of Marci. Everything else is a perk. If I get an inheritance that’s simply one reward for having married Marci. And if my goal for marrying Marci had been to ensure myself a handsome reward, you might question my love for Marci. In the same way we can often approach walking with Jesus youthfully. We know about Canaan. We know what’s there. We know what it’s like. We try our best to take the Bible’s description of Heaven and imagine being there one day. But Canaan is not the goal. Canaan’s the reward! The goal is more of Jesus! And if we are not careful we can easily confuse reward with goal and turn our walk with God into nothing more than a greed for ultimate gratification.

I believe Moses’ trek to Canaan serves as a powerful example of a youthful heart that begins to slowly long for the ocean.

Moses was an outcast for 80 years in both Egypt and Midian. After 80 years he is finally on his way to the promised land where he can finally set down roots and call it home. But just at the peak of freedom, just when everything seems to be working out to his favor, God tells Moses, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them” (Num.20:12).

What sobs must have flooded his chest on that day. After 80 years of being a stranger Moses learns that he will spend his last four long decades wandering a trackless and hostile “no man’s land” in the desert. Let me tell you folks if anybody wanted to get to Canaan’s land in a hurry it was Moses! Canaan would be the home he never had. It would be the place where he could finally settle. The place where he actually belonged. The place, however, that he would never see.

And then we come to Deuteronomy 34: the last chapter of Moses' book, the last day of Moses' life. Up walks Moses to Mt. Nebo alone, probably lonely. Through glistening eyes he listens to God speak these last words to him; “This is the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob when I said, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over into it” (Deut.34:4).  

Were there tears? I’m sure. But maybe not the kind we would expect. You see after 120 years of life you learn something about goals and rewards. I believe that on Mt. Nebo that day Moses knew he had finally reached the goal: In less than 24 hours Moses would never again leave the presence of God. He knew that Canaan down below was just a perk of the journey. On Mt. Nebo Moses actually stood much more firmly on the promised land than those who would settle on the real estate beyond the river.