Is your mission to improve your life! If so, what does that bring to mind? Maybe it’s:
- A newer car or bigger house
- Maybe you thought of a vacation home
- Greater investment returns or retirement income.
In fact, it might be anything. But if improving life is your goal, where do you begin? What do you improve first? Which part of your life did you pick? Many answers could improve life a little. But is there a greater, better answer? I think there is!
Was your first answer something for yourself? All the suggestions above were it’s-about-me items. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with those answers. But what if improving life doesn’t start with your own life? The great poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson, made an astute observation. He said the answer lies in improving someone else’s life. Here is how he said it:
It is one of the most beautiful compensations of life, that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.
And Emerson’s wisdom will improve your life more than cars, homes, investments, or a retirement income. But there’s still a better answer.
A Mission Example
Elijah was on Mt. Carmel in the showdown of a lifetime (I Kings 18). With his own life on the line, Elijah prayed for something we might not expect:
Answer me, O LORD, answer me, that this people may know that You, O LORD, are God, and that You have turned their hearts back again.
Elijah prayed for a nation of sinful people. More importantly, he prayed for God to be rightly known. That’s a prayer! And that is almost the first essential step for someone whose mission is to improve life.
Jesus’ mission was to improve life. As He left the Upper Room with His disciples, Jesus said:
I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me; but so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commands Me. Get up, let us go from here, (see John 14:30-31).
Does that hit you like it hits me? “…so the world will know that I love the Father…” Genuine love for the Father includes obedience. And His love for the Father was proved in His obedient death on a cross. His mission of obedience honored God and benefited others. That’s how to succeed in your mission of life improvement! 
To meet the mission of improving life we must honor God and benefit others. Being a mission volunteer is a great way to do that. And I’d love to talk with you about the opportunities we have coming up in the next year. Volunteering is one way to:
- Receive Emerson’s ‘compensation’
- Honor your Father
- Help someone else
- And receive the blessing of your life!
Just comment below and I’ll be in touch. Until then…
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