I recently heard a man share about an opportunity he once had to watch a practice round at Augusta National, just before the Master’s Tournament. He chose to watch Tiger Woods and Mark O’Meara.

As the play began, he said he noticed something puzzling: After each swing, Tiger’s caddy would say, “Good shot,” even though the ball did not go anywhere close to the hole on the green.

This happened over and over until the man finally, in disbelief, spoke up. When Tiger’s caddy said, “Good shot,” he said loud enough for those around him to hear, “That’s not a good shot.”

But, the man soon found out that Tiger was playing his practice round of golf, not aiming for today’s hole placement. Tiger was aiming for the location of each hole on the day the tournament was to begin. The record-setting golfer had a goal for the future in mind.

What goal are you aiming at in life?

“The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short, but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark,” artist Michelangelo reminds us.

Louisa May Alcott has written, “Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations.  I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.”

“The little things of life, sweet and excellent in their place, must not be the things lived for; the highest must be sought and followed; the life of heaven must be begun here on earth,” author L.M. Montgomery has remarked.

Bible teacher Oswald Chambers once wrote, “The destiny of every human being depends on his relationship to Jesus Christ.  It is not on his relationship to life, or on his service or his usefulness, but simply and solely on his relationship with Jesus Christ.”

The Apostle Paul left us his example, “…but one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13 – 14).

“Jesus knew where he had come from, why he was here, and what he was supposed to accomplish.  He came down from heaven not to do his own will, but the will of the Father. That determination controlled every decision he made,” author Erwin Lutzer has said.

C.S. Lewis put it this way: “Aim at Heaven and you will get Earth ‘thrown in’. Aim at Earth and you will get neither.”

Saint Augustine sums it up, “God is the only goal worthy of man’s efforts.”

Graduates of 2014 – and all of us – need to learn the importance of setting goals in life, and the most important one is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ who promises abundant life here and eternity in heaven.