Get Clear on Your Life Mission Now or Regret It Later

Last updated on: July 12, 2012 at 3:00 pm by Bill Blankschaen

Get Clear on Your Life Mission Now or Regret It Later 2012-07-12T15:00:04-06:00 Bill Blankschaen

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We don’t like to think about it too often. But life is short. It couldn’t have been that long ago that my daughter’s tiny hand barely wrapped around my little finger as she looked up at me for the first time. Now she’s as tall as my wife.

“Breath’s a ware that will not keep,” said the poet, A.E. Housman. No doubt about it. If you don’t get clear on your life mission now, you’ll regret it later.

The good news is I know someone who modeled what it means to live with great clarity on his life mission – Jesus.

Here’s how he did it:

Jesus knew what his life mission was not. Do you know what isn’t your calling? Too many of us serve haphazardly, doing a little bit of good in a lot of directions, thereby diluting our impact.The power to say “No” is one of the greatest we have – and the most underutilized. Jesus himself had clarity: “I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” (Matt.10:34) “I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.” (Matt. 5:17) Elsewhere he stated, frankly “My time has not yet come.” (John 2:4) He turned down calls for political involvement, not because he couldn’t speak truth into them – he made them after all – but because that was not his life mission.

Os Guinness made this observation in his classic book The Call:

Recognizing who we aren’t is only the first step toward knowing who we are. Escape from a false sense of life-purpose is only liberating if it leads to a true one.

Jesus knew what his life mission was. Even as a child he knew he was to be about his Father’s business. As a man, he spoke with the same clarity: “For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world….” (John 18:37) “For this purpose I came to this hour….” (John 12:27) And who can forget his greatest statement of finality at the cross: “It is finished.” Imagine having that level of clarity about your life mission that you can know, with certainty — mission accomplished!

Are you clear on your life mission? Just how long were you planning on putting it off? Michael Hyatt’s resource is a good one to get started. Os Guiness’s book is another. You might want to consider enlisting a coach, either officially or unofficially to help you sort through your gifts, passions, and calling.

One thing is sure, if you don’t get clear on your life mission now, you will regret it later.

As for man, his days are like grass; As a flower of the field, so he flourishes. For the wind passes over it, and it is gone. And its place remembers it no more. (Ps. 103:15)

Have you gotten clear on your life mission yet? What tools have you found helpful? Care to share your mission? Leave a comment by clicking here.

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