Glory Mission or Mission Glory, number two. Welcome to Welling for Your Spiritual Health and Growth. Mission Glory. We are in the first question, which allows us to understand, define, and comprehend the what question. This talk, mission what, and the next one, glory what?
The writer speaks about an old German Jewish philosopher who had fled from the persecution of his motherland in Nazi Germany and found himself at Central Park in New York. Forlorn, he sat thinking about the big questions of life, especially what is life about in the middle of suffering, and circumstance, and persecution? What is life about?
His entire appearance reflected the fact that he was in a very difficult circumstance. His worn-out appearance, his clothes were drab, his shoes were old. The policeman who was assigned to Central Park in the night beat came upon this old man and said, what are you doing here? What are you doing here?
The philosopher, lost in reflection, did not respond. The policeman nudged him again, and he said, old man, what are you doing here? Then the author writes, with searching in his eyes and pathos in his voice, the old man responded, I wish to God I knew. I wish to God I knew.
My dear friend, we are addressing the matter of mission, what is life about? In fact, my proposal is that without God, you will never know. And he answers the wish in the human heart to give us the direction, the definition, the discernment needed, even the differentiation of your life, for you can know and will know your mission.
What is life about? What is your life about? What is my life about? For a life without mission is in very dire straits. You’ll simply make noise, a lot of noise. You still have to ask, what is the noise about? It will be a life which simply runs in circles morning to evening, and you’ll do it every day.
But running in circles for what? For what purpose? A life without mission will focus on the superficial, this external way of living, posturing for the sake of others. A friend of mine who had the record of over 100 cases that he attended to as a doctor, gynecologist, obstetrician, he carried both portfolios in one of the large cities in the US, he said, my life is disintegrating. I have everything on the outside.
And he used a phrase that I’ve never forgotten. He said, “I keep putting on the dog.” See, that’s what dogs do. They can run in circles. They make noise. And they’re engaged in the externals. They never think about what life is about.
But you’re not a dog. You’re a human being. As such, you cannot live life simply going about in circles without a mission. It’s impossible, because the nature of human life, if you don’t have a mission, you will take the ordinary activities of life and turn them into your mission because they provide resources for you to live. You will take the hobbies, which will relax you, and they are so wonderful, but you’ll turn them into the mission of your life. You will actually start focusing on yourself as the mission of your life, and life will be about you rather than finding out what life is about.
Facing the challenges, the circumstances, the suffering that life brings upon us so suddenly means if you have a mission, you’ll be able to handle those better. I’ve got good news for you. Because you are a human being, you have the possibility that you can have a mission which transcends, a mission which liberates, a mission which undergirds you.
Someone once said the word mankind is made up of two words, “mank” and “ind,” and neither of those words have meaning. It’s just like mankind, we don’t have any meaning. However, since you are not a mere animal brute, because you are not a mere machine, a machine has a purpose but cannot shape its purpose, you as a human being can. The only issue is whether you’ll find a purpose that’s of worth so it can give you weight.
Don’t turn into obsessions as the mission of your life. Don’t turn to nerve ending pleasures as the mission of your life. Don’t try to live randomly, circumstantially, sort of an accident view of life. If you do all that, life will become confused. Life will become meaningless. It can even become suicidal.
I’m glad to say to you because you carry the image of God, the very nature of God because He lives according to purpose, it can be imitated by you in the image of God that you can live with mission. You can answer the question as to how life is to be lived on the Earth.
See, that’s what our anchor passage, in its very first declaration and very last declaration, the same Psalm, Psalm 8, reads, “O Lord, our Lord. How majestic is your name in all the Earth?” And verse 9 of the same Psalm, “O Lord, our Lord”– repeats the same thing– “How majestic is your name in all the Earth?” Your life on the Earth can be a life of mission, that something of worth can be something of weight in your mission for His glory.