I was recently in Calgary visiting family and my brother took me to a Calgary Flames hockey game. As we exited the arena afterward, I was immediately reminded of a day twenty-five years earlier when I exited the same arena. That day, I had met with the then President of the Flames, Ron Bremner, who talked to me about the possibility of working in their front office. It was potentially a huge career shift that certainly had its appeal to me. However, I realized that it was not the path God had for me. When I saw my life in the context of God’s greater story, I heard a very different invitation. What is the invitation that you are hearing today?
Our culture in North America pushes us toward being the center of the story. We are encouraged to take control of our own lives, to follow our feelings, and to play the role of hero in our own stories. That is the path to true meaning and fulfillment, we are told. But we end up filling our lives with things that never fulfill us. Instead, we face disappointment, confusion, and frustration. Why?
No matter who you are, or what you are facing, God is inviting you to join him and to find meaning and purpose in a life that is aligned with his mission.
We were created for something else, something more. There is a bigger and better story that God is writing in our lives, and we are being invited to embrace that story. In fact, it’s only in that story that we find our true meaning and purpose.
In the Bible, we find the overarching story of God’s mission from creation and the fall of humanity to the choosing of a people through whom God would bring a Savior, Jesus Christ, to reconcile the world to himself and renew all of creation. In that story, we hear God’s call to enter this salvation story and join him as his chosen people, his beloved, as disciples of Jesus Christ and ambassadors of reconciliation. At Multiply, we’ve been reflecting on this summary statement: “Jesus sends disciples, empowered by the Spirit, on God’s mission to love, reconcile and transform people of all nations.”
Do you see yourself in that story? God is eager for you to find your place within this amazing story of redemption and grace.
Whoever you are, whatever you do, God is inviting you into a bigger story. Whether you are sent by God to serve in faraway and unfamiliar places, or you are a stay-at-home parent just trying to keep up with kids and daily responsibilities, you have an important role to play in the story that God is writing. Maybe you are struggling to find direction, searching for hope, and only hitting obstacles, pain, and hardship. No matter who you are, or what you are currently facing, God is inviting you to join him and to find meaning and purpose in a life that is aligned with his mission.
In the Book of Genesis, we see God forming a people and we come to the story of Joseph (Genesis 37-50). He experienced betrayal from his own brothers who threw him into a pit and sold him into slavery. As a slave, Joseph was falsely accused and ended up in prison. Even then, God was writing a beautiful story of redemption that included Joseph. And Joseph took courage as he caught glimpses of that story and saw God at work, not only releasing him from prison but elevating him as a leader in Egypt. And when he finally faced his brothers, he was able to forgive them and to point them to God’s bigger purposes. In that encounter, Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives” (Genesis 50:19-21).
I’ve been reading a book recently by Chris Wright called The Great Story and the Great Commission and I’ve been impacted by the author’s understanding of how the great story of the Bible gives us both our identity and our mission; it not only describes who we are but also why we are here. The book challenged me to ask not what kind of mission God has for me, but rather what kind of me God wants for his mission.
In a very convincing way, Wright explains how we cannot find our place in God’s mission until we find ourselves in the bigger story of the Scriptures. Rather than trying to “apply the Bible to our life” we need to “apply our life to the Bible,” meaning that we need to allow the Scriptures to shape everything about us—our worldview, theology, missional understanding, and practical living. Only as we live our lives within the Great Story will we understand and embrace the Great Commission.
Part of the challenge for each of us is that we still get stuck in the narratives of our own culture and the limitations they bring. We struggle with unbelief, with greed, and with self-centeredness. Our hearts and minds are set on things below rather than above. We desperately need our story to be re-shaped and transformed by God’s story.
In his letter to the Colossians, Paul challenges his readers with these words: “Since you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory” (Colossians 3:1-4).
“Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”
Colossians 3:1-4
I hope the stories in this edition of Witness will help you set your hearts on things above. In the following pages, you will read stories of transformation from around the world about people like you and me who are finding their place in God’s mission, whether they are prisoners in North Africa, shy interns in Thailand, or church planters in Germany.
Most of all, my prayer is that you will clearly hear God’s invitation to embrace his story and his mission, and I trust that, as a result, your life will never be the same.
