Daily writing prompt

What is your mission?

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Mission is such an interesting word. When I see the word “mission” I think of two things. The first is the twenty-one historic California Spanish missions built between 1769 and 1833. I grew up learning about them in school and driving past them on various trips along the California coastline. The second is the idea of a “missions trip” or missionaries. Since I also grew up in church and in a family of pastors and ministry workers, I very familiar with this concept as well. So what is my mission? Why do I write?

Or, rather…

Why do I do anything?

I was recently sorting through a box of my old things—think school projects from elementary school, journals, yearbooks, and photo albums. I found an old autobiography that I wrote when I was in the fifth grade. In the paragraph discussing my interests and what I wanted to be when I grew up, I wrote:

When I started writing this essay, I wanted to be a nurse, but now I think I might want to be a pilot. I don’t really know what exactly I’m going to be, but I do know that I want to serve God.

Now, I have to admit that I find it particularly amusing that in the time it took me to write two pages, I changed my ideal career at least one time. Yet despite my indecisiveness about my future occupation, I was firm on one thing: a wish to serve God. It makes sense to me that I would want to follow in the footsteps of all those who came before me, living their lives as models of walking in faith. But that indecisiveness didn’t just go away after the fifth grade. No, that remained a theme in my life into middle school, high school, and even college.

I struggled to figure out what I wanted to do for a long time. To be quite frank, the things I enjoyed doing the most were things that I was afraid to pursue full-time. If I went into writing or another creative work, what if there was rejection? What if I didn’t have all the answers? What if I didn’t know what I was doing? (I assure you, there are times that I still don’t.)

There was a Bible verse that I read when I was seventeen that changed everything for me. I’d been reading it all my life but it took on a new meaning then. It was Exodus 4:11-12, which reads:

Then the Lord asked Moses, “Who makes a person’s mouth? Who decides whether people speak or do not speak, hear or do not hear, see or do not see? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go! I will be with you as you speak, and I will instruct you in what to say.”

I felt then that God was calling out to me and saying “Now go!” in every area of my life. What’s stopping me? What’s hindering me? God is so much bigger than all of my fears, and He is with us everyday, an ever-present help.

You could say that I’ve been now-going ever since, whether that’s in my publishing journey, in my personal life, in opportunities to speak or do events… Whatever door it is that God opens, I try my very hardest to now-go through it.

So what is my mission? Why do I write?

My mission is to go, and I write stories that hopefully inspire others to do the same.

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