Who is Your Mission?

By Nathaniel FormanEditor's note: names and a few details have been changed to protect the real identities of the people mentioned in this essay.Hopeless, abandoned, outcast, afraid, innocent, and abused, these all describe the life of six-year-old Lacy. She had five brothers and sisters, but none of them shared the same father. From a young age, she lived on the streets. She had to fend for herself and eventually built up a callousness to the world around her. She knew no other life. She often wondered if there was hope, if there was anyone out there who would love her. She came to a homeless program at which I was helping. Lacy is my mission.He had two daughters, a wife and a flourishing business. Life was good, however, he was not content. He tried the “God thing,” but it didn’t work out the way he had expected. Overtaken by lust, he destroyed the very gift that God had given him. He lost his daughters and his wife. Content to continue in his affair, he let his family slip from his grasp. This is the story of my uncle. He is my mission.She is a regular attendee of church on Sunday mornings. She has done this for her whole life. The product of a premarital affair, she has strived to accomplish more than her parents, but in the process, has started down the very same road. She knows all of the answers, and how to make herself look good. She is driven, the top of her class, and works hard to be the best in everything that she does. However, she is bitter toward her parents. She has no hope. She attends my school. Emily is my mission.It is staggering to think of how many people have not experienced what it is to know the Almighty Creator of the universe. They do not know what it is like to curl up into the lap of their loving Heavenly Father. They are unaware that they do not have to live this life on their own, by themselves, without hope. People that you know are oblivious to the fact that God loves them, that anyone loves them. They do not know that God gave His only son’s life so that they could know Him. They are ignorant of the fact that they can be forgiven for their sins; that they do not have to live in their hopelessness, guilt or regret. They do not know that they can actually and intimately know God. They just do not know.Do you care? Look around; there are people like this everywhere. You may see an Emily everyday, drive past a Lacy, or live with an Uncle Joe. Do you care enough to stop and try to make a difference? Do you just continue on with your normal comfortable life, too busy to see those falling all around you: walking in darkness with no hope? These people have been placed in your life for a reason. God has given us the opportunity to touch them with His unrelenting love. Jesus tells us: “lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest.” Do you care?Paul states, “But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent?” You could go. You could answer the call of God to love and tell those around you or those abroad. We are privileged to go and declare the hope that we have found in Christ. If you go, you will never be the same. In the going, not only will you be used by God to bless others, God will use those others to bless you. Will you obey the call of Christ? Will you deny your comforts and reach out to those without hope? Who is your mission? Will you go?About the Author:Nathaniel has participated in mission trips to a number of countries, is involved in the homeless ministry at his church, and coaches PE for homeschooled kids ages 4-17. He was a homeschool student through high school (and used the Institute for Excellence in Writing to learn some of those fantastic writing skills! =). He is currently a junior at Florida Atlantic University majoring in biology/pre-med with the goal of becoming a pediatrician.