Do you ever feel like you’re just muddling through life? People ask how you’re doing and you say, “Oh, I’m hanging in there … just barely.” Then I remember Christ praying to the Father: “As you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world,” and I have to ask myself: Do I sound like someone who has been “sent?”

If I have been sent, then I am on a mission, and if I am on a mission, how can I ever be muddling through life? Somehow I don’t think muddling is in my mission statement.

I’m thinking of Paul in 2 Corinthians 2:14-17 where he says that he is always being lead in a public display and is manifesting, wherever he goes, something real about the nature of his faith in Christ, and it is always having an effect on people, and I realize God can accomplish this mission in spite of what is currently happening in my life. Paul even makes this statement right after he has confessed his anxiety over plans not going as expected (verses 12-13). Even then, he could still say he was being lead on a mission.

Burning since 1901

That means nothing can stop us because nothing can stop God’s work in our lives. It would be great today if when people ask how I am, I could say, even if it’s just to myself, “I’m on a mission,” because I am. I’m on a mission to love God today with all my heart, and let that love reflect in all I do. I’m on a mission to love those closest to me — to be ruled by care and compassion and to make other people more important than me. I’m on a mission to listen and care about other people’s stories and be ready to tell my own to anyone who wants to hear it. I’m on a mission to manifest the fragrance of the knowledge of Christ wherever I go. All this can happen regardless of the circumstances in my life.

Let’s not just “hang in there” today. A disciple of Christ is on a mission and the light is always on. Live today as if you were sent, not just muddling through.