Men need a mission. A mission that integrates their skills and passions while also being obedient to God. How can one lead a family, if one does not lead their own life. I read this in a book my men’s group studied this winter, and this truth hit hard. I have no mission. Sure, I have interests and desires, but those differ from a mission. A mission is an ongoing purpose, an objective that you work towards. A mission is a continued pursuit of something beyond just material or visible gain. Semantics perhaps, but a difference nonetheless.
“The Life List” is a 2025 film that follows a roughly thirty-year-old woman Alex, who is told she must complete a bucket list of goals written by her thirteen-year-old self, in order to gain her inheritance. These goals range from performing at an open mic comedy night, to learning Clair de Lune on the piano, to finding true love. Alex has lost sight of her passions and mission and let the busyness of life dictate her routine. While routine in and of itself is not bad, fear of change makes us stagnant. How often do I fall into the same patterns because of the ease and comfort.
I wake up late, go to work, have dinner, and rotate between the gym, an evening church group, Netflix, a book, or a social gathering. Five times a week. Fifty-two times a year. I’m tired by the time the weekend rolls around, so I don’t plan much. Then Saturday or Sunday afternoon hits, and I’m wishing for an activity or event, but instead mindlessly scroll social media or dating apps. I reflect upon it, knowing I want change, that I should plan activities, or learn a new hobby, and decide I’ll make the adjustment going forward, yet seven days later its déjà vu. It’s so easy to justify, its almost diabolical, maybe it is. I think of The Screwtape Letters: “Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one – the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts”. Without a mission, how does one know in which direction he is heading?
I seek to travel internationally a few times a year. I have few local commitments, so the flexibility allows me to find cheap deals and explore new places. While tasting new foods and experiencing different cultures and architecture is engaging, I ponder what the draw is at a deeper level. I think it’s due to it being the few times a year I break routine. I force myself outside of my comfort zone. I engage with others proactively, act spontaneously, break away from the patterns of life. It’s a temporary escape from the self-created prison of routine. Yet, after a week, I find myself wandering back to my jail cell. How does one leave that comfort and safety after years of entrenchment?
In doing a little research for a potential trip, I stumbled upon a well-organized travel blog. Always curious who the author is, I saw a short note “a travel blog for bucket list adventures, inspired by a mission to create visual memories before going blind.” This twenty-six-year-old has a rare genetic disease that is slowly taking away her sight and hearing. Being a progressive disease, there is no longer such a concept as putting things off to the future. She has chosen to break away from the path so many of us find ourselves in – living for the future. Heartbreaking, yet encouraging. She embraces each day of sunlight like it might be her last. How do I appreciate and value the present? How do I recognize the beauty around me? I must seek joy daily.
In “One Thousand Gifts” Ann Voskamp describes the daily necessity of joy through thanks.
“This is the word that can change everything: eucharisteo—it comes right out of the Gospel of Luke: “And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them … ” (Luke 22:19 NIV). In the original language, “he gave thanks” reads “eucharisteo.”
The root word of eucharisteo is charis, meaning “grace.” Jesus took the bread and saw it as grace and gave thanks. He took the bread and knew it to be gift and gave thanks. Eucharisteo, thanksgiving, envelopes the Greek word for grace, charis. But it also holds its derivative, the Greek word chara, meaning “joy.” Charis. Grace. Eucharisteo. Thanksgiving. Chara. Joy.
Deep chara joy is found only at the table of the euCHARisteo; the table of thanksgiving. The holy grail of joy, God set it in the very center of Christianity. The Eucharist is the central symbol of Christianity. Doesn’t the continual repetition of beginning our week at the table of the Eucharist clearly place the whole of our lives into the context of thanksgiving?
One of Christ’s very last directives He offers to His disciples is to take the bread, the wine, and to remember. Do this in remembrance of Me. Remember and give thanks.
This is the crux of Christianity: to remember and give thanks, eucharisteo.”
How often do I truly give thanks? I can be glad, happy to avoid disappointment, but actively, purposefully, giving thanks despite what might be going on around me. Why do I focus on what I lack, instead of what I have been given? Perhaps the more I focus on the blessings, the more I’ll come to see and recognize, what I view as missing, is just a distraction to begin with.
