Whose Mission is it?
Did
you ever hear about the guy who went to Africa some years ago to do a
short term mission and
while he was there he decided to stay a bit longer than he originally planned
to? In the course of his stay he fell ill and they wanted to rush him back to
England for urgent medical treatment. While they were preparing to take him
away, an old woman (whom he had ministered to) came to his bedside and said in
their local dialect “you are part of us
now and even though you are sick, this sickness does not kill us; so you will
not die by this sickness”. Just then his face glowed with life. He regained
his strength and health and decided not to go back to England. Although he was
not too strong, he chose to stay with the people who had become his new family.
Gradually his health picked up and he stayed in Africa for seven (7) years
instead of six months.
Every
one wondered why he stayed so long in a land where hunger and poverty, sickness
and infections, war and death abound. In their opinion, he should not stay in a
place where he didn’t have average comfort, good medical facilities and working
infrastructure. In his response the guy said to them “I do not own my life and I did not send myself. Maybe we should ask
whose life do I live and whose mission is
this? If it is not my life and not my mission then
let Him take care of me whose life I live and whose mission I do”. What a statement!
I
believe the reason why so many people do not want to involve themselves
in mission is because they do
not understand whose mission it
is. This mission is not
our mission. I mean, it is not
your mission, or the
church’s mission. What we
call mission, is God’s mission which we are privileged to be
involved in. It is not a church enterprise, neither is it any individual’s
business; it is Missio Dei- mission of
God.
From
the beginning of creation, God undertook this mission and He chose mankind to be His partner in His ‘mission’. He created everything and declared
them good and created mankind to represent Him on earth. When man fell, He
(God) went ahead to consolidate His ‘mission’.
Up till now, God is in the business of restoring and renewing mankind and
preserving creation. Indeed if the Lord does not engage in this mission, we probably would not have an earth
to live in. God's mission has always been the same-preserving creation and
restoring mankind and the church, indeed everyone, is called to participate in
His mission.
The
life that we have does not belong to us. It is God’s life which He gave to us
to live for Him. When God gave you life, He intended for you to use
it to glorify Him. He did not create you for any other thing than for his
pleasure (cf. Revelation 4:11b). The truth is, we were created for
God’s pleasure and every time we do things for self-aggrandizement, we
displease God. We should do things to enhance God’s mission. We should never be afraid to sacrifice our pleasure to
enhance God’s mission for
truly those who seek to keep their lives will lose it but those who
lose their lives for God’s mission sake
shall find it. If you are blessed with finances, don't hesitate to use
it to enhance God's mission. Indeed, every one of us has something to
contribute to this great mandate; let’s join hands together and make God
proud.
Let us live our lives doing God’s pleasure; let us not be like
the heathen who have no interest in things that interest God. Let us be
involved in God’s mission for
indeed we were created to do him pleasure.
It’s a pity we’ve become a cold and insensitive generation of Christians. We’re usually fine and happy, as long as we can feed, clothe and educate our own children and ourselves, we really don’t care much what happens to other people. We would rather stand aloof and watch them suffer, or not even look in their direction at all. We need the words of Jesus in Mathew 25: 31 – 46 to come alive to us. We need to realise that the way we treat the needy amongst us can send us to hell according to verse 41 to 43:
ReplyDelete“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. (why) For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.”
If we know and even appreciate that there’s nothing we have that wasn’t given to us in the first place, I believe we will sit up and do the work of the Father. May God help us and make us more compassionate enough to do His mission.