On a Mission!

This past week my Aunt Catherine passed away at 95 years old. (She would have been 96 this coming January.). For the past five years, I have overseen her care, including having moved her out of the Bronx where she lived most of her life (she was in her last apartment for 41 years!), to a facility closer to where I live here near the Jersey Shore. For her the move was a huge change in lifestyle.  She was 92 years old at the time and went from living just a couple of blocks from an elevated train that could rock the apartment and a neighborhood that was extremely crowded, to a building that was just a few blocks from the beach and across from a small lake. It was a beautiful setting; she could even see the beach from her window. 

After having been in her new place for just a few weeks, Aunt Catherine said to me one day, “You know I’m on a mission!”  I asked her what she meant. She said, her mission was to tell everyone in the facility where she now lived that Jesus loved them.  Thus, she would go around saying “Jesus loves you!”) to everyone she met—along with “God bless you” and tons and tons of thank you’s to everyone who took care of her.  At times she would bring someone into her room and show them a plaque she had on her wall that had written on it, John 3:16. She would ask them to read it. And, then she would say, “Isn’t that beautiful? God loves us so much that he sent his son into this world for us. And, you know that includes you…God loves you!” Again and again, people told me how touched they were by her life and that when they were with her they felt so blessed.  

My favorite picture with my Aunt Catherine!

At the time, and many times since, I’ve thought to myself how amazing it was that a woman at 92 years old could still feel like she had a mission in life. When others are throwing in the towel on life or focusing on themselves and their own aches and pains, and feeling as if life has lost all purpose, my Aunt Catherine still felt as if her life had a purpose, a great purpose given to her by God!  Wow! If only we could all live out our lives in that way!

At the end of his life, the Apostle Paul wrote these words: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.” (2 Timothy 4:7-8 – NIV) Today, I believe those words apply well to my Aunt Catherine who knew that her “labor in the Lord (was) not in vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:58)

So, today I ask myself and I ask you, what’s your mission in life? God’s not necessarily calling us to accomplish big things (at least what others might think is “big”), but he is asking us to be a blessing and to share his love with everyone we meet. Maybe he’s wants to use you today to let someone know that God really does love them.

Like my Aunt Catherine did, let’s live our lives on a mission!

Have a great day!

Pastor Tim Harris