This is #beingonmission
1“Come, all of you who thirst, come to the waters; and you without money, come, buy, and eat! Come, buy wine and milk, without money and without cost! 2Why spend money on that which is not bread, and your labor on that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eatwhat is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of foods. 3Incline your ear and come to Me; listen, so that your soul may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you . . .” Isa. 55:1-2
One of the funny things I have observed talking to folks over the age of 65 is how engaged they become in social ministry and how happy and fulfilled they feel. My guess is this occurs not only because they can continue to feel relevant and contribute something but if the truth be told, there is another reason that they feel that happiness and fulfillment. I would venture to guess that perhaps for their first time they have captured what really matters in life. Or perhaps they have re-captured that idea.
You see, we spend a lot of time and money developing ourselves for our future. We spend a whole lot of money educating ourselves, spend a lot of energy negotiating our relationships to position ourselves and advance our careers. We burn the midnight oil in our jobs and then we play hard. At the end of the day, there usually is something that suffers along the way. It may be personal relationships, it may be our spiritual and emotional health, and sometimes it is our physical health. But we work very hard to nest ourselves for that golden moment of a wonderful retirement at the end of years of struggle.
There is one problem though, what carnage have we left behind to attain this? What is it that we sacrificed to achieve what we have? You can’t take it with you. You may have missed out of years of greater blessings that God may have had in store for you. I have spoken to many of these “over 65” people who are engaged in short-term missions and I can’t tell you how many times I have heard them say, “I wish I would have begun this practice years ago when I was younger, I would have probably been much happier. This is so fulfilling.”
What they are saying is this, “Why spend money on that which is not bread, and your labor on that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eatwhat is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of foods. 3Incline your ear and come to Me; listen, so that your soul may live.” Isa. 2-3.
Do you really want to spend your prime years of your life working for something that in reality does not give eternal satisfaction? Do you really want to make those kind of sacrifices that it sometimes take to commit your life to something that in the end is empty? Is it worth the relational sacrifice to obtain what you think will make you complete and satisfied? Living for the “dream retirement” is risky business, “what if you never get there in the first place?” What if it is short-lived?
Why not live NOW for what really matters? God’s purposes are so satisfying, so fulfilling, so awesome. I don’t have to wait, and I certainly don’t have to amass a lot of “things” or “financial security” to experience that. In Jesus Christ, and being on mission for Him is so fulfilling.
Do you know why? Because that is what you and I were made for. Discover you purpose for being on mission. Spend you “money,” a metaphor for “you energies” on things that really matter. God will take care of the rest.
Discover you purpose of being on mission and get on board!
Grace always, David Ceballos, Ph.D.
Beingonmission 