Reclaiming Our Mission
Theme parks keep you engaged at every moment with games, rides, shops, parades, food, and—my personal favorite—fireworks. Soon, you forget that you’ve spent all your money, have been waiting in lines for hours, and have serious blisters forming on your feet. All your attention is on the person who just passed by with a fresh batch of cotton candy. Yum.
What ride were you in line for again?
Distracted from Our Purpose
It’s amazing how easy it is to become distracted. Fifteen seconds is all it takes to distract us, yet we need fifteen minutes to regain our focus. That’s sixty times longer than it takes to become distracted!
No wonder my focus has been split between so many things lately. Similar to a day at a theme park, I feel like I live in a world pumped full of distractions. Everywhere I look, there’s something new to entertain me or compete for my attention.
At times, I welcome these distractions to help me escape from the reality of a fallen world and my own fallen state. I wake up wanting to forget the headlines, stop listening to the news, and boycott social media. In those moments, I turn to other things to distract me like watching too much TV, obsessing over healthy living, becoming a workaholic, stalking the stock market. Anything to distract me from the worries and pain of the world.
Yet the distractions I’ve been running to not only distract me from my difficulties. They also distract me from my purpose as a child of God.
Reclaim Our Gospel Treasure
In the midst of the “theme park of distractions,” God has been calling to me to remind me of my mission. As Paul writes to Timothy in his second letter:
Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began…Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you. (2 Tim. 1: 8-9, 13-14 ESV, emphasis added)
Scripture tells us that inside each of us, we have the greatest treasure: the gospel and the good news of Jesus Christ. Once our hearts have been transformed by Christ, he bestows on us the Holy Spirit to “guard” the gospel entrusted to us.
However, this gospel is not only to be guarded. We are commanded to share it, proclaiming the good news to all the nations.
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matt. 28:19-20 ESV)
Recognize the Enemy’s Tactics
But there is someone who doesn’t want us to proclaim the gospel entrusted to us—Satan. He has come to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10), and the tricks he uses to distract us from our purpose here on earth are endless.
Satan prompts us to set up idols and turn our focus from Jesus, so hopelessness and worry easily claim our attention. We become tangled in the affairs of this world and forget our heavenly purposes and mission (2 Tim. 2:3-4). Financial troubles, career problems, current events, what other people think of us—all these distractions can keep us from recognizing our Godly purpose to share the gospel.
Yet there is hope for us in our Savior.
Focus on Our Savior
As I’ve been reading through the Bible this year, I’ve realized that all Scripture points to Jesus Christ, the source of our redemption and salvation. So taking a hint from the Bible, I have been pointing my gaze toward the same.
Paul writes:
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. (Rom. 8:5-6 ESV)
When I fix my attention on Jesus and remember who he is, I also remember my identity in him. I remember the generous love he has lavished on me and the price at which he bought me back from sin and death. I remember that Christ rescued me from a world of distractions so that I can hear his voice and know him.
With my gaze on Jesus, I’m reminded of the gospel with which he has entrusted me and the mission he has given me to share it.
Accept the Call
As Christians, we have been given a treasure—the gospel—to carry, to guard, and to share. The world is a theme park full of distractions to keep us from this heavenly mission.
But with our focus on Jesus, we can drown out the world’s distractions; our idols will crumble at Jesus’s feet. With the power of the Holy Spirit, we are equipped to carry the gospel to those who need it most.
Daughters of Christ, this is our mission. Let’s carry it out together, reminding and encouraging each other when distractions encircle us. After all, someone did the very same thing so that we might hear the gospel.
is a business consultant in corporate America by day, Christian lifestyle blogger by night, and probably writing novels or traveling on the weekends. She likes to encourage young women professionals through the transition from college to the adult working world. Kara blogs at karajlovett.com.
Photograph © Kelly Sikkema, used with permission
One Comment