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Focus on the Goal

by Yehudis Golshevsky
Focus on the Goal
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Rebbe Nachman of Breslov taught…
The final objective of a process—its completion—is closer to the initial impulse to begin the process than are the first steps of that process. While distant from one another in time and action, they are closest in essence.
(Likutei Moharan I:18) 
What does this mean to me?
Everything in existence has a purpose, and that purpose has another purpose, and so on. For example, when a person wants to build a house, its purpose is to provide him with shelter so that he can rest. And the purpose of resting is so that he will have energy to serve G-d. And that service also has a purpose, and so on… Every act involves numerous steps. How many steps are involved in building a house from its planning phase until it is finally fully built? But the initial impulse to build is more connected with the completed structure than with any of the other phases of its development, since the vision of the completed project was what sparked the process to begin with.

The final goal of all of creation is the delight of the world to come, but there are many steps and phases that each individual and the world as a whole has to go through until that goal is reached. Even so, it is crucial that we remember along that long path that we are always headed toward a destination that is at the forefront of G-d’s “thought” and will. As we say in the Lecha Dodi prayer upon entering the Shabbos: “The end of the action was the first in thought.”

A prayer:
Please help me achieve my purpose
And fulfill what You desire for me.
Guide me to do what is good
And reject the bad
So that my life will be worthwhile.
May everything I do
Lead me along the path towards You.

(Between me & You, p. 140)

 

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