Mission Minded

Are you the type of person that is easily distracted or are you so focused you can tune the world out? Sometimes I feel like the dog Doug in Disney’s “Up” movie who is constantly distracted by squirrels. Other times I feel like Kevin Costner’s character in “For Love of The Game”. He was a pitcher in a game of baseball inside a noisy stadium. He would say, “Clear the mechanism,” and he would be able to tune everything out to focus on the pitch. As what we now refer to as Holy Week was about to begin, Jesus was headed for Jerusalem knowing what was waiting for Him there. He was focused and ready.

Luke 9:51 says, ”Now when the time was approaching for Him to be taken up [to heaven], He was determined to go to Jerusalem [to fulfill His purpose]“ (AMP). The King James Version tells us His face was set like a flint. He was so focused on His mission that He wasn’t being distracted. The people in the village wouldn’t let them stay there that night. They had no idea that they were denying rest to God’s son who had come to save them from their sins. They only saw a Jew who was dead set on getting to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. A couple of disciples wanted to call fire down from Heaven but Jesus rebuked them saying, “You do not know what kind of spirit you are; for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.”]

Hebrews 12:2 tells us to run our race with endurance ”[looking away from all that will distract us and] focusing our eyes on Jesus, who is the Author and Perfecter of faith [the first incentive for our belief and the One who brings our faith to maturity], who for the joy [of accomplishing the goal] set before Him endured the cross, disregarding the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God [revealing His deity, His authority, and the completion of His work.“ Jesus’ mission was the cross. His whole life was pointing to that moment so He could bear the sins of the world and bring salvation. Before He left, He gave us our mission to go into all the world, preach the Gospel and to make disciples. Like Jesus, we need to be mission minded blocking out the things that would distract us from what He’s called us to do.

Photo by Christopher Sardegna on Unsplash