Enough #3
This past Sunday I preached on the difficulty of accepting God's mission for our lives over what John Ortberg calls the 'shadow mission'. The shadow mission refers to those missions the world calls us to that involve accumulating things and climbing the ladder that gives us worldly status.
You might not think of things God is asking you to do as a mission. Just like you might not think of the things the world is calling you to do as a mission. A 'mission', however, means a specific task that you have been assigned or accepted. God and the world give us missions to accept or reject all the time.
When you see someone on the street corner asking for food - you are being given the option to accept or reject a mission to help him or her. When you see someone being bullied (and yes, there are bullies in the grown-up world, too) - you are being given the option to accept or reject a mission to intervene. When you are sitting down with your spouse and making a family budget - you are being given an option to accept or reject storing up earthly treasure - depening on how you choose to use your money in this world.
Unfortunately, in our culture, a lot of things just come down to money and whether or not you have it or whether or not you spend your days trying to get it. For God, however, I think money is a tool that He has given to us to make the world a better place. Most of the time, however, we reject his mission for money and accept the world's.
In my sermon I spoke about the diffferences in natural spending habits between my husband, Chris, and myself. I like to spend money on stuff and Chris, as he often says, would rather spend money to feed someone. It is pretty hard to argue with that line of reasoning and so often I feel irritated on the topic of money because I feel guilty that my first instinct is to hang on to the money, rather than give it away.
For me, this is one of my main battles -do I use money as a tool to further myself or do I use money as a tool to help further others? The answer is obvious but it is just so darn hard to do! For me, I think the key is to pray for God to help me care only what He thinks about me and not what others think about me. If I keep praying this and God's helps me out, I think I will probably be able to choose more 'missions from God' than from the world.
Chesney
"This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LOrd your GOd, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. - Deuteronomy 30: 19-20