What Is Your Life Mission Statement?

Yesterday, a friend asked me what my life mission statement was, and although I have one, I took exceptionally long answering her question. I mean, I put together a pretty good life's mission statement a few years ago, tucked it away neatly into one of my journals and slowly... forgot about it. "What do you mean?" I asked my friend. Even though I asked, of course I knew what she meant; she wanted to know who Jesus is to me, what motivates me, what I live by, what my purpose is, what I'm called to do, what I'd like to do, my vision, my dream, values, passion, etc. about and through my life. The more I thought about it, the more I realized how much my old life mission statement has changed.

I found that the older I get and the more I seek the Lord, my heart becomes more pliable and all I want to do is please my heavenly Father. I want to talk about Him and share Him with those who don't know Him like I do. I want to share my life experiences, my testimony because I know that "what is most personal is most universal." Meaning, there's probably nothing I've gone through and have been delivered from that someone else hasn't experienced. And the beauty in that is, the freedom I've found in my testimony and in Christ can always be used to heal other people.

About a year ago, I wrote a poem called, "Whom Love Pursued." It's a poem about my testimony that I turned into a spoken word performance, and I use it as a tool for ministry. I expose the things that used to be hidden in my life, bringing EVERYTHING to light. A portion of that poem is below:

she sits in distress, concerned and under arrest
she sits in her pretty pink dress afraid to tell her mom
because she'd make a mess of things
she's six and he, he cornered her
she's not even old enough to write legible
his decibels rang in her ears, "Touch it!"
she sits in distress, concerned and under arrest
her heart beats out of her chest
she's too young to be shaken from the nest
but satan's jest, was to destroy her...

In conjunction with this poem, I had a conversation with a family member last night about generational issues. And, as painful as that conversation was, I recognized a line of generational issues running through my family that made me want to fight somebody. Seriously. I was so angry at how we can so easily allow, overlook, turn away from, deny, keep secret, lie, not recognize, close our eyes to or refuse to admit generational issues. It's a killer. Really. ...until someone decides to allow God to break every form of bondage, every form of secrecy, every form of generational baggage in their lives, and then refuse to carry it any further. By the end of the conversation, I was even more fired up about how I want to live this life.

So far, here are a few of my life mission sentences: to use my actions, speech and breath to expose darkness and bring it to the light by growing in Jesus and not being afraid to speak His name. i see poetry and media as a creative avenue for me to use my personality to spread the gospel. i dream of being an author, traveling the world speaking to and highlighting the lives of young adults...

What about you? Hope this helps:

• -What is your life's purpose? Why do you exist? What do you stand for?
• -What is your calling? Gifts, talents, abilities...
• -What is your vision, goal? It should be a big one. I once heard this quote, "Your dream should be so big that if God wasn't in it, it'd be doomed to fail."
• -What is your mission? How are you going to accomplish the above?
  

Do not cling to events of the past or dwell on what happened long ago. Watch for the new thing I am going to do. It is happening already - you can see it now. Isaiah 43:18, (The Living Bible)