10 Traps & Distractions that Keep Us from Full Impact in God’s Global Purposes
By Shane Bennett
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In the past week, I’ve been privileged to watch two women I know do remarkable things. One bought a one-way ticket and hopped on a plane to Faroffistan. She’s going to live there, learn the language, and love and help the people. She raised support and launched during a pandemic. I’m impressed.
Another friend prayed, cried, schemed, called, cajoled, pressured and otherwise worked her tail off to get her Muslim-background-believer friends and a bunch of others out of Afghanistan. She has a way to go to reach her goal, but several people are breathing the air of freedom and security because of her efforts.
Do you want to have an impact like that? I do. I want to do every good deed God has laid out for me. I want to accomplish great things for a great God. I don’t want to miss the full impact God has in mind for my life.
But there are traps. There are distractions. There are things that look good, but only give the illusion of life, like what songwriter T Bone Burnett called “a travel poster in a prison cell.”
Let me be clear: I don’t know what “full impact” means for you. I don’t really know what it means for me. But I believe we want to pursue it and I know there are traps and pitfalls between here and there. Join me in asking which ones you’re prone to.
1. Sometime’s gonna be the right time.
There’s never a totally good time to move to Pakistan! Some times are slightly worse (eight months pregnant) or slightly better (marriage is solid and you’re independently wealthy), but no time’s perfect. I wonder if it’s possible that we fib to ourselves by saying, “We’ll seriously consider going when whatever happens.” Could it be this is an application point for the Proverb:
Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due,
when it is in your power to act.
Do not say to your neighbor,
“Come back tomorrow and I’ll give it to you”—
when you already have it with you.
2. I’ve been there, done that, got the fridge magnet.
It’s cool when global impact is on our bucket list, but we miss our best impact when having done something, we put a big fat checkmark by it! I wonder how much more effective Mormon missionaries would be if 20-30% of them went back for a second pair of years. (Let’s keep this idea to ourselves, eh?)
Like many things, we can expect our involvement in missions to compound in effectiveness over time. Your best contribution might be 25 years down the road.
3. I’m waiting for the big assignment.
My friend who’s getting people out of Afghanistan was in a position to make a difference because she’d been discipling Afghans for a while via Facebook. She was able to do that because she had taken the trouble to go out and meet Afghans in her city. Going to a public event with the hope (and prayer) to meet and make friends with Muslims is a relatively small step. Taking that step, however, can lead to amazing possibilities.
I hope God has huge things in store for you and for me. Maybe you’re up to your ears in one right now! If you’re not, trust God for the results of the small steps you’re taking and continue to exercise the faithfulness in little that qualifies you for big.
4. I’m truckin’ to Tarshish.
I want to soft-pedal this in some way, but I’m just going to ask: Is it possible you’re not having the full impact God has for you because you’ve boarded a boat to Tarshish? Would you be fish bait right now, were not God demonstrating his amazing patience? Maybe you found a good thing to do in order to avoid the scary thing Jesus was asking of you.
I certainly don’t know this about you. But I do know this: It’s never too early to get off the wrong road.
5. God doesn’t (or maybe can’t) use people like me.
The depth to which this notion has been pressed into our psyches is matched by its absurdity. The most cursory look at the Bible will show God specializes in partnering with buffoons! An equally cursory look at the humans around you (and perhaps your own heart) will show that most of us assume we are the sole exception to this rule.
God can use you. In fact, he probably already is. And it’s scary cool what he might do through you as you turn your face to the wind and begin to walk.
6. I’m living the American/Dutch/Kiwi/Indian dream.
All cultures are broken, right? They’re packed full of presents for God waiting to be opened, but yeah, they’re broken. In America, it may be the dream of owning more and better and bigger stuff. Maybe, where you’re from, it’s honoring your family or community above all, submitting to its every direction for your life. I don’t know, but I bet there are aspects of your culture that effectively raise up mindsets and pressure against giving your life to God’s global purposes.
I like a lot of things about my culture, and I don’t like the feeling of bucking it (usually), but I really don’t want to meet Jesus and have him say, “High five, Buddy, you pretty much nailed the American Dream. You could have 10x’d your impact on the world, but, hey, you got to drive a Tesla.”
7. Blessed be the ties that bind (well, not all of them).
I feel like such an old man saying this, but watch out! Entangling alliances can cause you to miss your full impact! A wife or husband is such a gift. The Bible says so. But with four feet instead of two, it’s harder to jump into something new! Add a baby and you square the challenge. Buy a puppy and you might as well forget it! None of those things are bad. You may even want to get a mortgage and buy a house. But do the calculus. Consider the ramifications. Don’t let the vines of normal life keep you from the radical impact God wants to give you and give the world through you.
8. I don’t know which way to walk.
Have you ever tried to plan a trip and been paralyzed by the options? A gazillion flights at different times and prices and do you have to pay for bags? Forty different rental car companies plus secret ones you won’t know until you commit. Hotels with high prices and bad reviews, low prices and mostly good reviews except for the one just three days ago that says this place has gone to the dogs! Ack! So it can be with a world in need. With so many options, how do you know?
For starters, at least, go where the glow is low. Point yourself toward the places or peoples where the least amount of Jesus seems present. There are around 422 Muslim peoples where no one has yet shown up and said, “Wanna hear a story Jesus told?” Give yourself to one of them!
9. Say no to plateau.
Ask God for the grace and strength to run all the way to the tape. I know people whose gospel effectiveness is stunning, even though they’ve more than earned a rocking chair and an afternoon of watching baseball. To be sure, “full impact” looks different when you’re 25 than it will (does?) when you’re 75. But may God make us all like scrappy old Caleb, “I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I’m just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then. Now give me this hill country that the Lord promised me that day.”
10. We’re all going to be OK, aren’t we?
True confession: I’ve been a mission mobilizer for 35 years and for most of them I’ve wanted to be a universalist. I just don’t think the Bible allows it. Tolerant pluralism may be the current zeitgeist, but God says he’s bringing his kingdom to bear on the earth and Jesus is the king. I want to die inviting people to their rightful place in that kingdom. Join me?
Globe image by Prawny from Pixabay.