Stay. Focused. On. Your. Mission.
I enjoyed a
recent newspaper article about a woman running for congress in another part of
our country. This woman is running for office after a distinguished military
career and so was asked by her interviewer what lessons she had learned in the
military that would shape her work if she were to be elected. “Five words,” she
said. “Stay focused on your mission.”
She went on
to explain, “The military is made up of people from every walk of life and from
every possible religious, ethnic, and cultural background. We were different in
a thousand different ways, and often times we would disagree vehemently about
the best course of action related to some particular challenge. But the one
thing that allowed us to work and serve together is that we shared a common
mission. And our commander would remind us repeatedly, word by word: “Stay.
Focused. On. Your. Mission.” That advice has long shaped my life and
always will.
I
believe this is good advice for the church these days as well. We are called to
join God’s mission in the world and to bear witness to God’s redemptive power
as seen in the sacrificial love of Jesus Christ. We are called to become a part
of that community of people that believes the power of love is the greatest
power in the world. This is our collective mission and I am grateful for the
thousands of ways I see that happening in the world these days.
But the ways we do that
can and will differ depending on where we serve and what our particular context
requires of us. The question that must be asked is this: What would God have us
to do in our particular context? What I see too often are churches that try to
determine their mission by looking at what other churches are
doing. The desire is to be like that big church down the street or
like that church that seems to be the new “hot” place to go. Yet to let other
congregations determine our mission is to ignore the particular gifts and
opportunities that God has given to us in our place. Our job is to
determine our calling and to pursue it as passionately and as joyfully as we
can.
I
understand that this is not always the easiest thing in the world. I can waste
an hour as easily as anyone trying to measure my life by someone else’s
experience. I admit that I sometimes have been jealous of someone else’s
success. But what is becoming increasingly clear is that what really matters is
not what someone else is doing but what I am doing. Everyone has a backstory
that tells how they got where they are today. We don’t have their story; we
have our own story. And just as surely, our congregation or business or family
has its own story. The task for each of us is to identify our own story, our
particular calling, and to pursue it with all our hearts.
Do
you believe you’re doing good work? Are you touching lives with the
transforming power of God’s amazing love? Then give thanks to God for that work
and do it to the best of your ability. Stay. Focused. On. Your. Mission.
Dan Holloway
Pinnacle Associate
Dan can be reached at rdholloway65@gmail.com