Mission.
We are exploring 5 traditional coaching themes through the month of January through a contemplative lens. Last week we looked at Vision as, not just what we see, but as a way of seeing…specifically from a Trinitarian perspective. I believe these thoughts and practices will give you a whole new way of entering your new year.
Mission is our next topic. Traditionally, vision is what we see ahead, and mission is what we do to get there. I’d like to enlarge on that idea today and say that mission isn’t just what we do, it’s who we are. Mission is identity in motion. So where do we find our identity? Hang on because your brain is about to explode.
On this topic, I’m indebted to a lady named Beatrice Bruteau who connects the way we understand our identity with the role of prayer. We know that Eastern cultures understand identity in a much more communal sense than we do. Western culture is highly individualistic. And the way we locate identity affects our spiritual narrative.
For example, Western Christianity (particularly the Evangelical tradition) is focused almost entirely on individual salvation. How are you handling your sin problem? Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal lord and savior? Are you going to heaven? These are good questions, but they are far from the whole picture.
Eastern Christianity focuses more on corporate salvation. What is broken in our society that needs healing?How are we caring for the poor and marginalized like Jesus did? How is the kingdom of heaven affecting the earth community? South America has also largely had this more communal orientation, fueled largely by oppressive totalitarian governments and the Liberation Theology that came out of it.
So let’s look at four statements that Jesus made that reflect different identity postures:
Why do you call me good? No one is good except God (Mk. 10:18). Jesus’ view of God here is highly transcendent, and Jesus distances himself from God as if to say, God and I are very different. I personally think Jesus is saying this tongue-in-cheek…but the text doesn’t tell us exactly.
I do nothing on my own. I only do what I see my father doing (Jn. 5:19). Here Jesus is finding his identity completely in sync with God. Yes, we’re different, but we’re fully cooperating.
It’s not me doing these works; it’s the father working through me (Jn. 14:10). Feel the shift here? Now Jesus is describing his identity in terms of full union with God. God is in me and working through me, Jesus is saying. This is a different posture in terms of identity.
Why do you say, Show me the Father? If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father! (Jn. 14:9) Wow! Now Jesus is locating his sense of selfhood entirely inside of the Father. He is bold enough to say, God and I are the same. And just a few chapters later, he’s praying that we would be one with the Father in the same way that he is one with the Father (Jn. 17:20-21).
Bruteau describes this as a spectrum of identity: on the one side, we are completely separate individuals—separate from God and separate from one another. On the other end… fully connected with God and fully connected with one another. She sees these four points on the spectrum as simultaneously true. We are separate and we are connected.
On the one side, we are clearly individuals with our own desires, our own history, our own calling, our own experience. Holding this truth helps protect us from group-think, enmeshment, and codependency. And we get the small separated Self intuitively, because we’re Americans!
It’s the other side, the larger connected Self that feels foreign to us…and maybe even dangerous. Sure, Jesus can say he and the Father are one, but not us! And to be sure, Jesus’ relationship with the Trinity is unique. But Jesus’ primary mission was, not to die but to live. Not to pay a blood debt to an angry God, but to show us how to live life fully in the Spirit like he did. To show us how to live in constant union with the Father so that we can be instruments of loving reconciliation, just as he was. And is.
So I leave you with a few challenging questions: On which end of that spectrum do you live most of your life? More individualistic or more communal? More separated or more connected? And the biggie: What might be Trinity’s invitation to you in this new year where it comes to identity? How can your sense of mission this year flow out of a larger, more connected Self?
Next week we’ll look at Values and how they shape our daily choices as we pursue a vision through our mission.
Your New Year’s Retreat Guide
Click the image to the left to print or download a set of four journaling exercises to bring your new year into sharp focus and missional balance.