Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Living into Mission

I chose the domain name of "Live the Story" for my blog because of the belief I hold that every single human being that has existed, presently exists or will exist in the future plays a role on an overarching story of the existence of humanity. Every single character in this story plays a part in its development (good or bad). The challenge we face in this emerging understanding of story landscape is discovering how our role fits into the grander story of humankind, and what we can do to help shape this story in the present and in the future.

For the sake of this post, I'd like to define the role that each human being plays within the context of this unfolding story as mission. Mission answers the question of why we exist. It gives us meaning, purpose, worth and orientation for the life what we live.

For some, mission is to kill, destroy, manipulate and harm for personal gain. Others may find meaning in devotion to faith, family, friends or vocation. 

In any case, every human being is living into their mission here on planet earth, whether they realize it or not. The challenge in shifting one's mission, or is creating a vocabulary for one's current mission is impacted by the following four elements:

1. Opportunity - Discovering mission begins with recognizing that every living being has been provided with the opportunity to not only exist, but to invest their life within the setting of the unfolding story of humanity. Opportunities come is all different shapes and sizes. Some are made available offline in one's neighbourhood, faith community, workplace or educational environment. Others occur online through social interaction, activity, study, research and the sharing of information.

Where mission is, opportunity has led us there. What are the opportunities available to you at this point in time? Find some people who can help point them out to you if you are having difficulty seeing them.

2. Proximity - Living into mission is most easily sustained by investing in the opportunities that are nearest to you. Proximity is both a physical location and an emotional engagement. Take for example the social justice issue of human trafficking. It may not be possible for someone to move into the middle of where this issue is most pressing, but the emotional connection that can result from awareness of the opportunity to get involved creates the nearness connection that is proximity.

3. Passion - Passion is most easily defined as suffering, believe it or not. Passion extends beyond a fleeting emotional connection, creating a determination and active engagement in an unfolding opportunity sustained by nearness (proximity).

4. Courage - Courage is the final element to the nucleus of what it means to live into mission. Opportunities are plentiful, created by nearness and sustain by passion...but it's courage that moves thought into action and value into activity. Will we face the fear of the unknown, embrace the concept of re-writing an unwritten script and live into the mission we were created for?

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A Little Something from Psalm 8

 Had a lot of fun with this one.