“Your Mission Should You Choose To Accept It…”

Weekly Devotion – October 9, 2011 a Mission

Theme/Title:   “Your Mission Should You Choose To Accept It…”

Scripture:  Exodus 32: 1-14; Luke 14: 28-33; & Matthew 5: 13-16

Media:  YouTube video “Following the Leader (Disneyland Fun)”

Reflections:

Jesus makes a great point when he talks about discipleship and uses the example of someone planning to build a tower needing to estimate costs before beginning construction in order to know it can be finished.  This is called planning ahead.  This is knowing your mission and how you plan to complete it.

The story of Moses calling God to task and reminding God of the mission they are on together shows how important it is to take a long view and to understand where you came from what you have done and why you are doing what you are doing.  A mission takes commitment, time and sometimes while in the middle of accomplishing it you wonder if the effort is worth it and need to be reminded that it is.

When we look to what it is we are to be about as the church and as faithful children of God, we see that we are embarked upon a mission – we are to flavor the world, to shine a light on the world, and to guide the world to a place God desires it and us to be.  How can we do anything without knowing what it is we are to be doing as faithful people of God?  A mission defines our purpose and ultimate destination and guides us as we move ahead to live faithfully and fulfill our covenant with God.

A mission is that statement or phrase that we look to for guidance and inspiration as we move forward.  It is the concept that we are trying to make real, the target we are shooting for, the result of our actions and activities.  President John Kennedy had a mission for our nation, put humans on the moon by the end of the 1960s.  This mission then informed and guided all the efforts by industry, the scientific community, the military, the government, and countless other individuals and groups each with various goals but all focused upon accomplishing the mission.  Or how about on Star Trek: “Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.”  This is the mission that all the crew focused upon and worked toward accomplishing.  To get anything done, to get anywhere you need a target – a mission.

“Boldly Shaping Partners of God for the Transformation of the World” is our God given mission.  The words could be different but the idea is the same – we are to be about helping others know God, deepen their relationship with God and as faithful people working together with God we are to change the world and help move it closer to what God dreams it will be while loving and serving others. 

Meditation:

Reflect on a time when you were involved in something big, something that had a clear mission and you played a role in fulfilling that mission.  Remember a situation where a mission was not stated or clearly defined.  How do these two experiences differ?  How did you feel?  What happened?

Prayer:

Offer thanks for the missions that you have helped to complete and the accomplishments they achieved.  Pray for our church as we embark upon our mission.  Pray for yourself and how you will be involved in the successful completion of the mission we have been given.