UCSD — a Goal or an Objective?

Congratulations to all the first-year and transfer students on making it to UCSD! Great job! And I hope all of you returning had a wonderful summer.

As you begin or continue your education at UCSD, let me ask a question: “Was it your objective or goal to be at UCSD?” People make distinctions between the two: “A goal is a broad statement of purpose, while an objective is a specific, measurable action that helps achieve a goal.” We may use the two words interchangeably in casual conversations, but the distinction is helpful. Coming to UCSD, while great, could not have been your goal (or purpose): it was just an objective that needed to be met on your way to achieving a goal. Maybe your goal is to be a teacher, an engineer, an entrepreneur, a doctor, a lawyer, etc.

But achieving such a goal cannot be the end. Once you embark on a career, you will need to come up with some career objectives to work toward so you can achieve a greater goal. The goal can be reaching a certain income level, obtaining a certain professional status, coming up with certain innovations or solutions to a societal problem, etc. But we must again ask what happens after you achieve that goal.

This makes us wonder what the real difference between an objective and a goal is. Is the goal just the last objective in a series of smaller short- and mid-term objectives? Or is there a qualitative difference between an objective and a goal? We can have different goals for different stages of life. Are these just like developmental markers for children? Hitting these markers may show that a child is “normal” or “healthy.” But being “normal” or “healthy” cannot be the goal of one’s life! If one spent all his time and energy maintaining his health and didn’t do anything with his healthy body, what a wasted life!  

Someone likened life to a candle. Like a candle, once the spark of life is lit in us, we burn until the light goes out from us. Just as the goal of a candle is not to preserve itself but to burn as brightly as it can to provide light, so the goal of our life cannot be simply to preserve ourselves as long as we can or to acquire more stuff for ourselves but to expend ourselves for something greater than ourselves.

But what is greater than one’s own life? Would you exchange your life with anything? “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul” (Mark 8:36). How about other people? This may be the noblest thing we can do. But if you must expend your life for something greater, can others’ lives be more valuable than your own? This is not to deny the nobility of self-sacrifice for others. We instinctively know. The question is what the rationale is.

The Westminster Shorter Catechism summarizes the Bible’s teaching by stating, “The chief end [i.e., goal] of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.” Any reasonable conception of God will admit that God is greater in being and glory. If morality is about seeking what is good, there is no greater virtue than to seek the glory of God since He is the ultimate Good. And what happens when our goal is to glorify God? Jesus said, “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 10:39). Who can compensate for the sacrifice of our life in any way? Only God! For the sacrifice of our temporal life (which is God’s gift in the first place), He can give us eternal life in return!

To glorify God is to acknowledge Him as our Creator and Lord, to whom we are accountable for all that we do with all the gifts He has bestowed on us. Have you done that, perfectly? The Bible declares, “...all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). But God has provided a way of forgiveness: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). If so, how can our ultimate goal be anything but to glorify Him and enjoy Him forever? Now, we can expend ourselves gladly in service of God and others!