A mission is a special assignment given to a person or group – says the dictionary. My immediate thought is of either an aerospace mission or a military/combat mission. Neither are on my radar or in my history.
Until Henry Blackaby got hold of me (via his devotional that gives me a daily challenge), I haven’t really thought of myself as “on a mission” or even having a “mission” given to me. Let me pass on to you my discomfort about that (you’re welcome).
He says in defining “mission” it is God finding those whose hearts are right with Him and placing them where they can make a difference for His kingdom.
Right – I have known about “mission”aries and how they serve. I have never felt that was for me, though – I might end up being sent to Africa or a totally foreign place which is super scary to me. I know those wonderful missionaries who have done that dramatically affected eternity with their service.
Let me go back – do I want my heart to be right with God? Absolutely…. And do I want to be obedient to what my Lord requires of me? Absolutely….but could we just skip that Africa option?
And I had to grapple a bit with whether or not I was given a mission, a special assignment, that would make any difference for His kingdom. How about I just donate to missionaries? Right…that’s my idea, not His. OK, let’s explore a bit deeper.
Blackaby used Philip as an example. He was not one of Jesus’ 12 apostles who were responsible for church life in biblical times, but he was one of 7 men chosen within a church and ordained by the apostles to do some special work with the widows in a church.
Check out the book of Acts, especially chapters 6-8, and you will see that God used Philip’s life to take the gospel to the ends of the earth. He preached powerfully in Samaria so that an entire city was rejoicing at the miracles God was doing. (Acts 8:5) Great – many preachers and missionaries today would love those results. However, my inner thoughts are saying “that’s not me”.
Oh, yeah, Blackaby had a retort to that. Turns out Philip was not focused on missionary activity. As Blackaby says it: “He was God centered.” Even with those great results, Philip was not preoccupied with his reputation as a great preacher or miracle worker; he instead was concerned that his life remain in the center of God’s activity.
Well – that’s convicting. Of course I want to be focused on God’s activity in my life.
In fact, when he was instructed to leave his fruitful ministry, Philip did not hesitate. (Acts. 8:27) God led him away from the big group preaching to a personal evangelical event – and then there is not much more we hear about Philip. What’s the deal with that?
As he typically does, Blackaby drew out the point and made me look at it personally.
He pointed out that God continues to seek those as responsive as Philip to go on mission with Him. And as I pondered that, I started to re-think my inner picture of “mission” folks.
Driving the point home, Blackaby reminded me that it is not that God is unable or unwilling to act. It is that He first looks for those willing to have their lives radically adjusted away from their self-centered activities and placed into the center of God’s activity.
I thought about a major focus (and time commitment) for me at this time which is guiding others to save lives, one Life-Story at a time; creating legacies that will live on and bless others.
God has used scripture to reinforce and encourage me in this direction – “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.” (Deuteronomy 6:5-9)
You have to admit – creating a digital book with photos, stories and memorabilia is way easier communication perhaps than telling your stories to your children and hoping they remember them correctly and pass them along after you are gone – correctly.
Does anyone remember the game of “telephone” where you pass a phrase or sentence by whispering it to someone next to you and they whisper it to the next person, etc. all around the circle? Has it ever ended with the same message as was given at the start? You get my drift.
Maybe you, like me, did not see this guiding of people through preserving their Life-Story in a photobook as a missionary endeavor at first glance. But here is what I found as I began to teach and grow this business – God was at work turning this into my mission.
One of my early students put it this way – “thanks to the Life Story, I have been more focused on seeing how God has shown up in my life in the past, and can better see His works in the present and hope for the future….”
In doing my own story, I began to see the family placements and interactions where God was directing and I had no clue. Life-shaping events, as I reflected on them with the “in these later years” viewpoint I now have, were amazingly God-directed.
As I shared in the past, Delilah, author of One Heart at a Time, said it beautifully in her book:
Have you ever considered that the hurts in your past are meant for something greater than you? God hurts with you. He didn’t, nor doesn’t, want bad things to happen to you. But here’s the really interesting fact: God can redeem anything, and anyone at anytime. Your pain and suffering of the past can be healed, and not only that, it can be used to heal others.
Have you ever stopped to consider how someone else may need your story? That’s exactly the point of this book, in case you forgot. Changing the world one heart, one story at a time. That means you telling your story of redemption and offering hope to the next person going through some tough stuff.
She echos a scripture I love: “He comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction, through the comfort we ourselves receive from God.” (2 Corinthians 4 CSB)
Now that’s a mission I can embrace and recognize. God has a reason for comforting us in all our afflictions. He wants us to pass it on.
And I am totally on board with helping people sort through their photos, stories and events of their lives pulling out what God wants to have preserved and passed along and use in His work.
I will let Blackaby give us our call to action through his final questions:
Have you seen the activity of God around you?
What is God presently inviting you to do?
How are you responding?
I am right there – on “mission” with you!
