DEFINING WHAT MATTERS

One of the things I worked on this past week during my Introvert Intermission was a personal mission statement. Sounds like fun, right? Doesn’t everyone spend their vacation working on personal mission statements? It was like taking an adventurous hike through the wilderness … of my mind. I got lost. A lot. Wide open spaces and no sign of life for miles…. You get the picture.
Throughout September, our youth ministry taught on Legacy. It is hard for a 16-year-old to think about legacy. How do you think about legacy when you don’t have a ‘one-of-a-kind’ dress for homecoming and no hottie date to take you either. Your life is basically over. Screw legacy.
But  a 41-year-old is definitely thinking about legacy as she I realize how fast time goes.

I was also reading the book “Simplify” by Bill Hybels and it spoke to my cluttered soul about the need to clean out, downsize, and organize my life and spirit.  Ever watch “Hoarders” on A&E? Have mercy. My mind would test the best life organizers.
Life is like a busy day at the office where you look up at the clock and realize it is 5:05 pm and you have NO IDEA what happened to your day. How did eight hours pass so quickly and the only thing I have to show for it is a different number in my email inbox? (A different but equally depressing number.)

“When we fritter away our one and only life doing things that don’t really matter, we sacrifice the things that do matter.” Bill Hybels

I love fritters. Apple fritters. What I don’t love is feeling like I’m frittering away my day or life.
My faith matters. I can’t live whole-heartedly as I was designed to do without daily connecting and walking with God.
My family matters. I won’t sacrifice my family. Period.
My health matters. I can’t live and serve as I am meant to if I’m not committed to good health.  Sleep. Exercise. Healthy eating.
My calling matters.  In this area, I needed some clarity, some perspective. I needed a statement that helps me walk away from innumerable lesser opportunities in favor of the few to which I’ve been called and for which I’ve been gifted. I needed a statement that superseded any job description. A calling is more than a job.  After a lot of prayer and thought, here is my personal mission statement:
My passion is announcing freedom to the captives so we might live as the liberated and beloved people of God.
It is based on Isaiah 61:1 as well as a vision that God gave me nearly sixteen years ago.  If I can spend my days saying “yes” to things and people who help me announce freedom to the captives, especially those held captive emotionally, mentally or spiritually, mine will be a life well-lived.
[tweetthis url=”http://goo.gl/v7dPXh”]God is the great Liberator and there is no shortage of people needing to be set free.[/tweetthis]
I’ve lived most of my life in bondage to fear, to pleasing others, to food, etc. etc. etc.  The list goes on and on. There are many things that I’ve abdicated my sense of worth to over the years and although it will always be a temptation, God has done a lot of healing in my life.  God has given me a taste of the goodness of freedom in Christ and it has made all the difference.  And like anything that tastes good, I want to tell the world about it. There is nothing on earth that we must be enslaved to because we have a King who has liberated each one of us.
As I think about a lot of what I’ve written on this blog, it comes back to this heart and message repeatedly but it wasn’t necessarily intentional. But with this personal mission statement guiding me, expect more posts challenging us all to remember that God has come to set us free so that we can love and live as liberated people of God.
Remember this  — God’s fundamental demeanor toward you is goodness.  Keep repeating that to yourself until you believe it.  Because it is true, my friends.
And out of His goodness, He sets us free.