Under Non-Glare Glass?

I wrote this Fragment five years ago… but the truth it highlights is more powerfully true today.

I stepped into my closet and scanned the pants that I had hanging on a rod.  It was as though my REI hiking pants were waving at me like a second grader who knew the answer to a difficult math question.

It had been a winter drought of activity and a mountain hike was drawing me.  Hanging neatly in my basement was a Camelback hydration pack, and a pair of nicked and dented hiking poles.  Then it was to the lower shelf in our garage to collect my hiking boots, then a couple of granola bars and out the door for my first “solo day” in the mountains.

In the course of the next several hours I completed a wonderful late spring mountain hike.   Dust and mud had once again initiated my equipment, even as rocks marred it.

As I marched up Chief Mountain outside of Idaho Springs, Colorado, I thought a great deal about what God had, and is calling me to. I thought about the mission of Youth For Christ, and the propelling power of ministry to young people in crisis.

Much like my hiking equipment, a mission is intended to get used – to get a bit dirty and nicked up.  A mission is embraced by flawed people, who aspire to do noble things in imperfect ways.

I’d rather see my mission through nicks and blisters and mud than through non-glare glass.  My goal is not to admire my mission, but to execute it.  I’d rather get gashes in my hiking pants than maintain them in pristine condition in my closet.

A good mission begs to be tested and criticized more than being protected and revered.  A mission, the mission that I am called to, invites me into the adventure that risks failure and evaluation and scrutiny.  Like a good pair of boots, a mission statement fits more naturally the longer it gets used.

“And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 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.”      (Matthew 28:18-20 ESV)

Certainly Jesus knew that His instruction in the Gospels would find traction and momentum and failure and conflict in the book of Acts.  Jesus expected that His mission would get nicked and dented and bruised.  But He commissioned His followers for action… and He does the same for us.

A mission is worth the risk – worth the open invitation for criticism – worth the public scrutiny.

Youth For Christ reaches young people everywhere, working together with the local church and other likeminded partners to raise up lifelong followers of Jesus who lead by their godliness in lifestyle, devotion to the Word of God and prayer, passion for sharing the love of Christ and commitment to social involvement.

What’s your mission?  Are you keeping it under non-glare glass?

Use it.  Nick it up.  Break it in.  Fail at it.

For the cause, for the calling, for our King.