Do You Have a Mission in Life?
On the Occasion of the New Year
Do You Have a Mission in Life?[1]
What is your mission? And does it have depth and importance? How broad is your mission? And what is the element of the spirit in it? What have you achieved so far? And what do you want to achieve?
It is good for a person to sit with himself and examine where he is and where he is heading. However, some people, in their sitting with themselves, discuss minor details without taking a comprehensive look at their lives as a whole, so that the person may ask himself about his mission in life: What is it? And what has he achieved of it?
Do you have a mission?
Do you feel that you have a mission in life for which you live, and because of this mission your life has gained value to you and to people, and your life has acquired a taste?
Or does your life pass in a routine manner? One day hands you over to another… and you live each day as a unit separate from the whole of life, the important thing being that it passes safely and ends!
And do people feel your life and its impact?
Is your mission in life clear and tangible, and do people feel its effectiveness? So that if you are absent for one day, they feel that you have left a void that none but you can fill?
Do people feel that you have a life that is very necessary to their own lives…?
And that you perform a mission toward them, and that you enter into their lives whether they want or do not want, whether they wish or do not wish, to do a work that benefits them, or gladdens them, which they miss if it does not exist and long for it and for you if you are absent…? So that you have become a part of them, and they cannot do without you?
Here we ask:
2- Is your mission in life limited to yourself? Or is it beneficial to others?
Many people have no concern except to live, to enjoy themselves, and to achieve purposes in their lives and fixed goals that give them a special status or lead them to certain desires in their hearts.
If they reach this, they feel satisfied with themselves, happy, and sufficient, and they lack nothing anymore… As for the others and the rest of the people, they are not the subject of their concern!
But people of great souls feel that they have a mission toward others. They do not live for themselves, but for others. And the more they make people happy, the more they fulfill their mission.
That is, their mission is the happiness of others, and for that they are ready to give themselves. Therefore they always toil with every effort so that everyone around them may rest. They are always thinking not about their private affairs but about the good of people and the management of their matters… and this is their mission in life.
The mission toward others differs in terms of number, type, and also in terms of time span.
There is a person whose entire mission toward others does not go beyond the limits of his very close family, such as the wife and children, or the father and mother and brothers… and it may perhaps extend to more distant members within a wider circle of the family.
Another person’s mission is directed toward his town, or his local community, or the body to which he belongs, such as an association or a syndicate. And a person’s mission may extend to include his entire homeland. It may extend even further to include all humanity. An example of this is scientists who work for the good of all humanity, for its comfort and benefit.
As for the type, we ask:
3- What is the type of your mission? Social for example, or cultural, or is it a spiritual mission?
Some fathers and mothers think that their mission toward their children is fulfilled if they care for their health, attend to their material needs, complete their education, and ensure their marriage and their stability in homes.
And perhaps a father’s mission toward his children expands so that he leaves them something they receive after his death!
But the spiritual life of those children, and the extent of their relationship with God… and their destiny in eternity—these are matters that fathers and mothers may not give the importance and focus they deserve! More than this, the life of the parents may be a stumbling block to their children and a cause of their distance from God!
And just as we say this regarding the mission toward children, we say it also regarding the social mission.
Many who are engaged in social service feel that their entire mission is centered in giving financial assistance to the poor… Yet perhaps this material assistance may lead the poor into various forms of lying, deception, and fabricating reasons by which they obtain money, by deceiving social supervisors with false excuses!
And with all the labor in this service of caring materially for the poor, their souls may perish and go to hell!
4- Therefore we see that the noblest missions are the spiritual mission, the mission that aims at the salvation of the soul and its happiness in eternity.
Its means are leading people to repentance, to purity of heart, and to the love of God. And in all this, offering every kind of practical and sublime love to everyone who needs it. How beautiful is what was said about the Lord Christ in this:
“He heals every disease and every sickness among the people” (Matt. 4:23).
He cared for everyone, spirit and body: “He went about all the cities and villages, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness among the people.” He was a loving heart toward all, and His love appeared in His saying:
“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28).
With spiritual work, there is also concern for people’s problems and working to solve them. And giving rest to everyone in a proper way, and offering the work of love to all, in both spiritual and material aspects as well.
For you cannot preach to a hungry person while leaving him hungry, but as the Lord said:
“These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone” (Matt. 23:23).
Thus the spiritual work proceeds alongside the social work.
The Lord Christ preached to the multitudes until the day was far spent. Then He said:
“I do not want to send them away fasting, lest they faint on the way” (Matt. 15:32).
And He commanded His disciples to give them something to eat.
So does your mission in life include both together: spiritual work and social work? And do you work for the salvation of the soul while at the same time solving people’s problems and giving them rest in their troubles?
5- And does your mission have fruit?
Is the word of the Lord on your tongue “powerful and effective, and sharper than any two-edged sword”? And does the word you speak contain spirit? Because you speak it while filled with the Spirit, having mixed your word with prayer.
Do you have fruit in service, and have you brought many to the knowledge of God? Can you say in the kingdom:
“Here am I and the children whom God has given me”?
Does everyone who sees you love God because of you, and does your life influence him and draw him toward God through the perfection within it?
And does your service grow continually?
Have you obeyed the apostle’s saying:
“Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you” (1 Tim. 4:16).
How deep is the life of those saints who had a fruitful spiritual mission. How beautiful is the saying of the apostle:
“He who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins” (James 5:20).
Are you working in this sphere, according to the grace God has given you and the stewardship entrusted to you? Even within a narrow scope, according to your talent… even merely by good example without words, if God has not given you the gift of speech.
Many people had a mission in life: they were beautiful icons in the Church.
They were a living epistle read by all people. Through their lives they presented the image of God to everyone who met them.
They were a practical example of the life of righteousness, the life of faith, and the love of God. They were a sermon without being preachers. “He who does and teaches, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:19).
This is truly the great mission: that you be the image and likeness of God and bear witness to God according to your ability.
And you do not enter the kingdom of heaven alone, but with you enter also everyone who loved God through you. Thus you will have fruit.
And you will be like a wise builder in the kingdom of God. The word of the Lord frightens us when He says:
“He who does not gather with Me scatters” (Matt. 12:30).
So are you gathering with the Lord, following the saying of Paul and Silas:
“We are God’s fellow workers” (1 Cor. 3:9).
Many of the works that people do will end after a while. They are attached only to this world and do not go beyond it to heaven, and they will cease in eternity.
But the spiritual work remains, extending from here into eternity.
He who chooses it has chosen the good portion that will not be taken away from him.
So are your works earthly or heavenly? And is your mission in life limited only to this earth, or does it extend to heaven?
And there is another question:
6- Is your mission limited to your lifespan here on earth?
How many people’s mission in life ends within the time span of their life here on earth and goes no further.
If they die, all their works die with them, and perhaps people forget them after a time… or remember them briefly and then they end.
But those of great spirits have a mission that extends beyond this earthly life.
The Creed established by Saint Athanasius is still lived by us until now. The monasticism founded by Saint Anthony still exists and is alive until now; indeed it has grown and spread.
The books written by the holy Fathers of the Church— the world still draws from the fountain of their spirituality and teaching until now, and will continue to draw from them in the future.
The life of these people extends beyond their generation; their thoughts and works still remain. Is your mission in life of this type? Does it have depth and a time span?
A person remains in his mission more than he remains in his children and his offspring.
His mission gives a true image of him far more accurately than the image presented by his children.
May you now sit with yourself and think: What is your mission in life?
If you do not have a mission, your life will be lost and without value.
Therefore make your life valuable by performing a work that has value and permanence and accompanies you into eternity.
And every year you are well.
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