What would you do if you couldn't fail?

During the last week of my Student Launch Pad program, I have my students craft a personal mission statement.

It is always interesting to hear students' response to the question, "What would you do if you knew you couldn't fail?" Many have never been asked this question. A lot of us have been taught from a young age to be practical and follow a prescribed trajectory. When we're freed from these confinements it can be liberating - but also daunting.

So I ask you: What would you do if you knew you couldn't fail?

The awesome reality that I have seen in my own life is that I can dream big because I have a God who is big. When we live timidly, it is often because we have a small view of God who doesn't seem quite powerful enough to handle all parts of our life.

Instead, dreaming big requires that I rely on God because yes, I will fail without him working through me. It requires that I listen to him when he says, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9). 

And our joy comes from living a life on a mission. We are to be sent into the world on a mission, as Jesus prays to his Father: "Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified" (John 17:17-19). The word mission comes from the word missio, meaning "to send." Where is God sending you? 

We are made holy, purified, and redeemed as we go. 

"The Lord had said to Abram, 'Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.'" (Genesis 12:1-2)

As Tim Keller points out in his sermon "Mission" (the June 23, 2011 podcast), as God tells Abraham that He will bless him, he also immediately says that it is so he may be a blessing to others. And to live into this blessing, Abraham must "go." For Abraham that means leave his country, but in more general terms it means that to be on a mission we must be willing to leave our comfort zone. 

We must make ourselves vulnerable.  

This means entering into relationships with others, it means relying fully on God, it means living life on purpose. And through being sent, we are a blessing to others. 

Jesus tells us, "I say these things... so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them."

Are you living into this joy?