How to Live a Life of Purpose Within Our Communities
I first remember learning about Newton’s law of inertia, also called Newton’s first law, from a science textbook I was reading for school. My family lived on a small hobby farm in small-town Minnesota, and I was probably around fourth grade. Like many other things math and science related I learned during my homeschool and community college years, I dismissed it as not-very-relevant to my actual life.
Little did I know then that this small but potent piece of insight was instrumental to living a life of purpose. I would rediscover the word years down the road as I began learning how I am wired as an Enneagram 9. With incredible accuracy, the Enneagram explained that if I was stationary, motionless, I was apt to remain unmoving, but if I began with even the smallest movement in the right direction, that movement would gain momentum.
** The Enneagram, in case you are not familiar with it, is a tool that offers insight into what motivates us on the deepest level. It speaks into core, often buried fears, and increases our awareness of how we default so we can push against our grain into wholistic growth. I’ve found the insights it offers extremely helpful across all of my relationships as it fosters understanding and empathy for others, and encourages us to see how much better we are together.
Adding inertia to the equation
The past couple weeks we’ve talked a lot about purpose. We walked it backward to the beginning, where the proximity of families creates potent potential for organic discipleship. Then we followed the ripple to our neighborhood, unpacking how to couple proximity with openness in order for the things God is growing in us to have the greatest impact. Today we are following the ripple out even further to our communities.
How can we be missional beyond the scope of our homes and neighborhoods? How can we bring the essence of the Lord’s presence everywhere we go in our communities? These are the questions I seek to answer today.
Let’s look at it this way: in order for a ripple to grow it must begin. The beginning is not just important, it is essential. Proximity to God plus proximity with people is the foundation of missional living, and when we add inertia to the equation, it sets us in motion. Inertia makes the beginning not just a single moment of time, but the beginning point on a new trajectory.
Just one baby step in the direction God invites us to envision opens the door for more baby steps to follow. Each yes builds trust—that He is faithful to lead, faithful to remain with us, faithful to grow the seeds we plant in obedience.
The beginning may feel small, but we can’t bypass the planting and go straight to the harvest. Likewise, if we want to reach our communities with the light and love of Christ, we have to start close to home. Our testimony is only as authentic in our workplaces and schools and gyms and churches and after-school programs and sports teams as it is lived authentically at home.
The recipe stays the same
The recipe for missional living is the same in our homes as it is in our neighborhoods as it is our communities. We spend time with God, learning His heart, His truths, His ways—and we make our lives accessible to others. We love God and we love people. And we are real with God, and we are real with people.
Transparency is the vehicle that turns disciples into disciple-making-disciples. It’s whole-hearted surrender that invites God to reach into every nook and cranny of our lives. And it’s the humility to authentically share the work He is doing inside us while we are still works-in-progress. It’s choosing authenticity over fear, and freedom over perfectionism and appearance-preservation.
Proximity to God plus proximity to people. It’s the recipe that ripples because it changes us on the inside, and changed people spark change regardless of where they are.
Mission is not an activity—it’s our identity. We aren’t missional sometimes, like flipping a switch on and off. We are God’s beloved, and because we are beloved to Him, we grow to reflect His heart, which is missional at its very core.
He loves each of the people we interact with during our day just the same as us. Nothing I, nor you, nor anyone else, can do makes God’s love grow or diminish. He loves us because He is love. And we are through and through His—that is who we are—in the grocery check-out line, and the bank drive-through, the local library, and the gym, our work places, schools, and churches.
We practice mission at home, and it becomes more effortless to be missional in our neighborhoods. We live mission in our neighborhoods, and it becomes an overflow that naturally pours out into the places we frequent within our communities as well.
A prayer for the one who longs to live a life of purpose
Jesus, how apt we are to strive to earn our worth, but a life of purpose has nothing to do with our efforts and everything to do with You within us. You invite us to proximity with You and the people around us so your sweet presence lingers everywhere we go—at home, in our neighborhoods, at work, at school, at church, and everywhere we frequent within our communities. Would You be You inside us, and teach us how to be Yours always. In the precious and holy name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.
Change your actual life in less than 5 minutes per day!
You can change your actual life in less than 5 minutes a day because baby steps truly can change the trajectory of your life. If you want 2021 to be the year you actually start living on mission in your neighborhood, this little book (available as a paperback and on Kindle) will help you get there. Each of the 30-day devotions takes but a few minutes to read, but they will lead to lasting life change.
If you’d like to check out Part 1 of the devotional FREE and also gain access to the rest of the missional living resources I’ve created for you in the new For You library, let me know here where to send the unlock code!
