The Father revealed more of His Father’s heart to me recently as I sat in His presence. He took me back to the time when my two young sons and I used to walk the rocky beaches of Whidbey Island, Washington. As I pondered those times, He reminded me of why my sons used to love those times with me: they just wanted to be with Daddy. Indeed, the more I reflected on this, the more I realized that my sons always wanted to be with Daddy because they knew that Daddy loved them and that they loved Daddy. So it was that my sons and I hung out a lot together, becoming almost inseparable as they grew up.
I think the Father healed more of my own "father wounds" as I thought about this today…I realized how His Father’s love has changed me and how it continues to invite me to just be with Him. It also reminded me of how He loves just to be with me, just as I love being with my sons.
Then my thoughts turned to the question of intimacy and mission. Just as my sons learned to be like their daddy and longed to work alongside me just to be with me and do what I was doing, so those who walk in genuine intimacy with the Father long to be with Him so much that they engage in His mission from that place of intimacy--just to be where He is, all the time!
I have always been puzzled by those who see tension or even conflict between intimacy with God and being missional for God because, although I have known those who have managed to be missional without being intimate with God, I have never known anyone who was truly intimate with God who wasn’t also missional! Nor does Scripture show us any tension between the two: David was about as “missional” as a person can be, but the Psalms pulsate with his passionate pursuit of intimacy with God. And the greatest missionary of all, the Lord Jesus, lived in perfect intimacy with His Father and did nothing apart from that intimacy. Even Paul—perhaps the second greatest missional person ever—described his life in terms of intimacy more than mission (see Philippians 3:10-11).
So how are intimacy and mission related, and why is it so important to keep intimacy as the first order of one’s life? I am in the process of writing a long article on that question, and I will post it here as an attachment when it's finished (hopefully this week). For now, I give you just the main themes. First God's mission is intimacy (i.e., intimacy with us restored). Second, intimacy with Abba precedes, births, accompanies and sustains mission (if you read John 15:1-16) carefully you will catch these points!
More soon. In the meantime, may He draw you so deeply into His love that you remain forever captured and captivated!
Tom, the least of Abba's children.
1 comment:
I wholeheartedly agree with your following statement: "...so those who walk in genuine intimacy with the Father long to be with Him so much that they engage in His mission from that place of intimacy--just to be where He is, all the time!"
Often times when we talk about intimacy with God, we view it as just sitting at His feet, but it is much more than that. Intimacy with the Father also happens when we are doing things with Him. The Scripture says, "We are God’s fellow workers." As we work alongside the Lord, we accomplish mission. I would say that the only way we can be truly missional is by being with the Father. I have done a lot of "missional" stuff on my own and it doesn't add up to much.
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