The “Secret” Mission
A Theology of Redemption, Part V
Into God's good creation came the Kingdom of Darkness, the Empire of Satan. Christians pray, "My Kingdom come, Thy will be done," and they ally themselves with the Kingdom of God striking back. God has chosen to re establish His Kingdom by blessing those who respond to Him in the Obedience of Faith, and then commanding them to be a blessing to all the peoples of the earth. Why is this a SECRET mission? Paul used the term. As both the Old Testament and the Gospels reveal, those who receive God's blessings are far too often reluctant to share them, and thus their true purpose in life, their mission, remains secret.
Fellowship and Accountability in Reaching Upward
In Chapter 4 we saw that "the obedience of faith," is a crucial Spiritual reality, and is basic to the human part of reaching the goals of the upward relation of love toward God. We have arm acknowledged the necessity and legitimacy of family, community, group, office, and social authorities as normal and natural in the outworking of obedience. Thus we are ready to ask more specifically just how a Christian group might try together to reach the fast four goals of loving God with all their "heart, soul, mind, and strength" (Mk, 12:30).
In Chapter 3. where we began our catalog of the goals of grace the eight facets of love: four upward, four outward we observed that it is hard to separate goals from means.
In our USCWM community we have for a long time reflected on means in relation to each of these eight goal areas. Thus our eight fitness committees have been pledged not only to concern themselves about goals but to suggest means immediately related to these goals. This is not the place to present all the materials generated by these committees. What follows is barely more than an outline of some of the concerns these committees address.
1. Upward Goal One: Loving God With All Our Hearts - Spiritual Fitness Committee
Here at the Center we emphasize daily private devotions above all other activities. The first event of the day, at 7:45 am,, is to gather in groups of between four and seven people and share from our own private times (during the previous 24 hours). Members of our staff who shy away from these group meetings tend to be those who have not had a rich and rewarding time in private devotions, and thus, often, consistently have little to share.
Beyond a special time, there must also be the continuing "practice of the presence of God," as Brother Lawrence has taught us, building on Paul's exhortation to "pray without ceasing." Many are the opportunities to worship "to look full in His wonderful face" during our average week. These opportunities include church meetings, of course, but also the daily work boom, and even traffic lights, when we have 30 to 45 seconds arbitrarily thrust upon us in which can feel pain due to the interruption of our schedule, or pleasure at the opportunity to turn our thoughts to our Heavenly Father, seeing His glory in the face of Jesus Christ.
2. Upward Goal Two: Loving God With All Our Souls - Psychological Fitness Committee
The central concern here must be the gracing and empowering of our lives with a clothing of well thought out personal and corporate habits. We have only so much nervous energy to expend Life requires some creativity even to decide what to wear, cook for supper, and so forth. But, for example, it does not require us to custom design the schedule each day for the period between the time we get up and the time we arrive at our morning meeting. To have a well designed "normal pattern" saves a great deal of nervous energy.
One thing my older brother said to me one time was, "I don't need to 'decide' to exercise each day¬it is simply part of my normal schedule." He is free to decide not to exercise, but that expenditure of nervous energy is much more rare than the opposite. If we intend to eat, exercise, shower, pray, and read the Bible each morning, why not try to establish a normal pattern?
In my case, my almost unvarying pattern is to get up and jog tint, rrnefl the morning air, reflect on the Lord and His goodness, then spend about two minutes putting some hot cereal on to cook in the microwave. During the 13 minutes that the cereal is cocking (and before taking off my jogging clothes), plus while teat, and perhaps after that as the Spirit Leads, I concentrate on my morning devotions. Then I turn so the phone calling that can only be done inexpensively before S a.m.
Today I made about a dozen phone calls but that is unusual and, as a result, I had no time for any other kind of work and even missed taking a shower. (There are worse things!) I got to my 7:30 daily appointment on time anyhow, and I was prepared for the morning meeting at 7:45.
Okay. That is only one little cluster of well developed habits, Note: the reason the shower follows devotions is so my devotional thoughts can carry into that shower/shave period.
Patterns! Efficient patterns of life, well greased grooves which fit things into the right order and have the sanction of engineered reflection, can build a strong spiritual soul.
As mentioned in the goals section, the soul includes the heart but also the larger self, the whole person. In the Hebrew language it even includes your toenails! God is not fully loved when any of this is out of order. Little disobediences in this area can pull down the most talented person, greatly diminishing his or her actual contribution in life. Little habits add up across the years to wholesale mediocrity in place of immense faithful, or even brilliant, accomplishment. Serenity of heart must build on the foundation of the disciplined life. Our support groups need to help us acquire good habits one at a time. If we focus on one in the personal life and one in the office, we will gradually build a strong, confident, serene personhood. God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power, love, and a sound mind.
3. Upward Goal Three: Loving God With All Our Minds - Intellectual Fitness Committee
The entire mission industry is being disserved by the structure of our school system that keeps people away from the field until they are 26orso. And even this pattern allows little room for specialized studies related to the fieldwork being anticipated! In examining this situation, we have to realize that the creeping length of schooling in the US. has grave weaknesses even for those who intend to work in our society. (Concerning "creeping length": when our Founding Fathers Washington, Adams, Jefferson, etc. went to "college," they went, are the age of 13 or 14, to an institution that required no previous formal training, and they got out completely out at 17 or 18.)
As a result of reflection on the impact of extending four years of schooling to 17, we wonder if, in the Western world, it may be necessary for us at least to allow people who have been in school for 12 years to begin to mix serious, confidence building, productive contributions to society (e.g., work) with the systematic acquisition of valuable general and vocational knowledge and skills (e.g, school),
We believe all of the expected goals of a university curriculum can be acquired in a carefully designed worlq'study lifestyle. We do = dunk it should be necessary for people interested in missions to have to delay their involvement due to school, nor to postpone or forfeit their schooling due to involvement. If only some missionaries owned a university!They do. We have established a university for the express purpose of serving the mission cause, and it is at this point, then, that the development of such a work/study lifestyle becomes an urgent purpose.
Ours is an international university. As long as we know you are in good care, you can study any place in the world. Theoretically, you can take all your courses in other schools. We merely have to be able to verify what is happening and be able to add up what a "student is accomplishing in order to assure the "student' and others that all the essential components of a quality education have been covered.
I put the word students in quotes on purpose. All 'students" on our campus will normally be pursuing a work/study lifestyle. For that reason, we would actually prefer to call them interns. All of our staff "workers" will also be studying and thus fall into the same classification.
4. Upward Goal Four: Loving God With All Our Strength - Physical Fitness Committee
The pattern hits the area of physical fitness has been well defined and is now simply a matter of periodically renewing our determination to fulfill it We am boosted along in this by the fact that, fortunately, our society has picked up on health issues lately to the extent that exercise is rapidly becoming a major, culturally supported emphasis.
The thing to beware of, however, is that what is merely a culturally approved matter of personal pride and attainment can come into our lives masquerading as the outworking of love for God. We should watch our weight in order to please God, not just man. As we jog we can pray, "Help me to enjoy this boring business I would much rather play soccer but I'm doing this in order take care of the body You have given me in mush." Enduring something for God's glory is definitely a means of grace!
Next month: Outward Goals.
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