Do You Know Your Real Mission?

Every business is supposed to have a "mission." Just look at any business website and you'll probably see a tab you can click that will tell you what the "mission" is of that particular business.  While it's not usually the case, the businesses "mission statement" is supposed to communicate something special about that business. If you've ever owned a business and tried to write a mission statement, you may have had the experience of struggling to "come up with" a unique or even interesting mission statement. In fact, I've rarely read a mission statement that really leaves much of an impression on me. With the millions of businesses in this world, that shouldn't be all that surprising.

Now, imagine if you had to come up with a personal mission. What would you say?

At one point in my life, I used to read a lot of business "success" literature. That's the stuff that's written to help you advance your career, make more money, start a new business, improve your communication skills, be happier at what you do...whatever. More than once, I came across an exercise that suggested you write down your personal mission. I always had trouble with that exercise.

So at one point, having given up reading all that success literature, I just figured that I was created "to know, love, and serve God." I didn't really need some special personal "mission."

Recently, though, I learned that each of us really does have a special, unique mission. Here's what Cardinal John Henry Newman wrote:

“God has created me to do Him some definite service: He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission. I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good. I shall do His work. I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it, if I do but keep His Commandments. Therefore, I will trust Him. Whatever, wherever I am. I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him; in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him; if I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him. He does nothing in vain. He knows what He is about. He may take away a friend; He may throw me among strangers. He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide my future from me, still He knows what He is about.”

So, as it turns out, I do, after all, have a unique, special mission. Now, don't ask me to write it down or anything. Cardinal Newman explains that not only do we not have to write anything down, we may not even really know the exact nature of our real mission. 

This is kind of neat. No matter who I am, no matter my success or lack thereof, no matter even my health or mental state, I am entrusted with this special mission. If I trust God and obey His Commands, I am accomplishing this mission that He has entrusted to me.

Even I can do that. Okay, so I need God's grace to do that. I understand. And maybe it's not always easy to be faithful and follow God's Commandments. I understand. But the fact is, with God's grace, I can do that. Each of us can do that. Whoever we are, whatever we do, we can carry out that special mission that God has reserved for us.

I don't know about you, but this is pretty exciting news to me. Even during those hum-drum, boring days that come and go, I'm carrying out a special mission given to me by God. So it's OK that I didn't invent some new technology, like Steve Jobs, or become rich and famous, like Bill Gates, or powerful like the President of the United States. My own ordinary life has a purpose - a mission - that I'm carrying according to God's plan for me.

And, what's even better, I don't have make up some "personal mission statement" to tell you what it is.

Oh, and HAPPY ALL SAINTS DAY!