Life on Mission

 More from the collegiate conference I went to :)

Our second group session Steve Turner came out swinging with Romans 12:1

"For from Him and thought Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen. I appeal to you therefore by the mercies of God to present yourselves as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God which is your spiritual act of worship. Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing you may discern what is the will of God. What is good and acceptable and perfect."

Turner might be one of the most influential Christians I have met. He's definitely up there! And part of what made his talk SO potent is that he was saying things I have wondered for years. I've always had this feeling that we in the American church have by and large missed something about what it really means to be a Christian. I feel like most of what I hear is either "Yay, Jesus loves you! You are loved by God, aren't you so special?!" or "You're a horrible nasty sinner and you need to spend your life trying to fix that. Work, work, work!" Now certainly not ALL American churches preach this. Certainly there are many of you that would recoil at either of these views. But to hear Turner talk about giving everything because of who God is was so comforting/revitalizing/freeing. He summed up a life on missions as "All of you for all of Him to see the Kingdom expand." He talked about how we've been freed from sin to become a bondservant of Christ--which is a good thing because He is a GOOD master. 

Now I'm sure at this point, some of you are thinking, "Trish, how in the world is this comforting/revitalizing/freeing?!" I think it's because it feels more True than the other options. If my main focus is on how much God loves me, then as soon as things start to go wrong in my life, I go to God and say, "I thought you loved me! Why is this happening?!" It is a slippery slope that can eventually lead to "there must not be a God or if there is, he must not love me." Now I am NOT saying that God doesn't love us. He does! But you know what you won't find in the bible? Somewhere where it says that God is Love, Love, Love. That isn't the umbrella term that is used as a qualifier for all his attributes. 

Side note: In Hebrew, if you want to emphasize something, you repeat it. Think of it like good--greater--greatest. So if I wanted to say something is really true, I would say truly, truly--which Jesus did more than once. Well there is only one word that is used three times in the bible to describe God and that is Holy. He is set apart, he is above, he is extraordinarily unique. And since it's x3, He is completely all those things. His Grace is a Holy Grace. His Justice is a Holy Justice. AND his Love is Holy Love. It is a Love that is set apart, above other loves, extraordinarily unique. It is the truest form of love. It's not something to be manipulated-- "If you really loved me then you'd..." and it's not something that sets us apart from others because guess what? He loves EVERYONE. 

Phew. Okay. Getting off that soap box. So, if my main focus is how much God loves me then I will forever be focusing on, well, me. But, if on the other hand I begin to look at all the things I am encouraged to do in the bible, then I am at risk of becoming burnt out, worn down, and frustrated at my failings. I can also end up in a place where I begin to think, "God I've done all this stuff for you, so you should do _____ for me." Which is also a dangerous place to be! BUT, if I shift the perspective from me to Him, then I get traction. Should I obey God? Yes. Does God love me? Absolutely. But where is my part in all of this? I am to abide. Remember the whole, "it isn't a religion, it's a relationship" motto? It's totally true! We can't work our way to heaven, but neither can we claim His love then go do what we want and get mad when he doesn't love us in the way we wish. He's God.

What can we do? Abide! What freedom can be found when I stop thinking of myself! When I turn and focus on Him. When I spend time with Him and begin to learn who He is and trust Him. This is the place where transformation happens. This is the place where freedom lives. It reminds me of the hymn Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus. "My soul are you weary and troubled? No light in the darkness you see. There's light for the look at the Savior. And life more abundant and free. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace." 

 I am convinced that as we do this--as we abide--dying to self becomes almost easy. We start to see the world as He sees it. We start to see people, (as Turner put it) not as flesh and bones but as living souls. We begin to see His love for all creation and we realize why He's asking us to give up everything for Him. He want's to make His appeal to those around us through us. Because He does love us. All of us. 

This is what it means to live a Life on Mission. As (I believe it was Jenny Allen) says: "The Great Commission can be summed up this way, 'I came to be with you. Now go and be with people so they may be with me." And we do it all WITH Him--abiding every step of the way.