But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God. Acts 20:24 NLT
Congresswoman Clare Booth Luce was an insightful journalist and pioneering congresswoman who was concerned that President John F. Kennedy was diminishing his impact by chasing too many things. She told him that a genuinely great person’s life was so prioritized and passionate that it could be summed up in one sentence. Think about that.
- Abraham Lincoln was a U.S. president, a husband and father and son of humble roots who devoted his own life to bring freedom to those enslaved and ensure the preservation of the union of the United States.
- Mother Teresa was a frail bodied Albanian woman who challenged the entire world, giving her life in service to God and people by creating the Sisters of Mercy in order to give hands-on care for the abandoned, diseased, and dying on the streets of Calcutta.
What a way to live! Living with such priority and passion that our missional life can be summed up in one sentence, that anyone who knew us would RECOGNIZE the person it described. Paul was that kind of person. He was urgently on his way to Jerusalem. He had decided to hurry past Ephesus, but as he drew close, he sent a message to the elders there. He knew he would not see them again after this trip because he was certain that he would be captured in Jerusalem and go on trial. So, he decided to meet with them on this final trip.
The elders came to see him, and understandably they tried to persuade him to stay, to not head on to what they felt would be certain death. But Paul was clear. He wrote his own life-defining sentence: Paul was a Jesus-follower whose life was worth nothing to him unless he used it for finishing the work assigned to him by Jesus – the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God – and his written words are still telling the Good News today.
It is so very easy to reduce following Jesus down to just a belief statement. It must never be so. To follow Jesus is to wrap my entire life around my mission to follow Him. Truly following Jesus will so define me that I can STATE my priority mission, and other people can see it in the life I live.
- What is my mission? How do I live my life? Is it truly ordered around following Jesus?