Sent
By John Fischer
Sometimes I act as if I’m just muddling through life. I’m lucky if I make it through a day. People ask me how I’m doing and I hear myself say—even to fellow Christians—“Oh, I’m hanging in there, just barely.” Then I remember Christ praying to the Father: “As you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world,” and I have to ask myself: Do I sound like someone who has been “sent?”
If I have been sent, then I am on a mission, and if I am on a mission, how can I just be muddling through life? Somehow I don’t think muddling is in my mission statement.
I’m thinking of Paul in 2 Corinthians 2:14-17 where he says that he is always being lead in a public display and is manifesting, wherever he goes, something real about the nature of his faith in Christ, and it is always having an effect on people, and I realize God can accomplish this mission in spite of what is currently happening in my life. Paul even makes this statement right after he has confessed his anxiety over plans not going as expected (verses 12-13). Even then, he could still say he was being lead on a mission.
That means nothing can stop us because nothing can stop God’s work in our lives. It would be great today if when people ask how I am, I could say, even if it’s just to myself, “I’m on a mission,” because I am. I’m on a mission to love God today with all my heart, and let that love reflect in all I do. I’m on a mission to look for opportunities to give a reason for the hope I have in Christ. I’m on a mission to tell my story to anyone who wants to hear it. I’m on a mission to manifest the fragrance of the knowledge of Christ wherever I go. All this can happen regardless of the circumstances in my life. I don’t get to muddle through anything.
In the movie “Saving Private Ryan,” a platoon of men in World War II are on a mission to find Private Ryan and bring him home. Sometimes they struggle with their mission. Some of them almost abandon it, but as long as they are moving with the mission of the group, they are all on it. They were sent.
How about you today? Have you been sent? Then you aren’t just hanging in there; you are on a mission. Be aware of it today, and look for what God has for you.
