[adapted from Life Missions, Family Healing, by Michael Brown]

Intriguing is the notion that each one of us has a special cause in the greatest depths of spirituality. 

It is a very deep secret.

Your family has been sent here for a specific reason that is consciously unknown to you (at least as far as the details) and it is important for you to fulfill your part of that assignment.

Before getting to our families – and the healing necessary to complete family sanctity – let’s stay on the topic of mission. Life is like foreign land – a wilderness – and we have to cross deserts, scale cliffs, endure lack of nourishment, seek shelter, rediscover paths, decide which turns to take (and which are dangerous), ford rivers (that may have rapids), cut through “brush,” survive heat and cold, navigate mountains and ravines. You are an explorer on a strange planet that one day you will see was not your real home but a place for learning and accomplishment, growth, and sanctification. It all comes down to keeping our eyes on the Light and bringing our loved ones along.

We all have missions and they tie into the tests of life on earth, which is an obstacle course.

While, in a "worldly" sense, it may be hard to believe, what God has assigned to you is as important as what He has assigned to anyone else.

That's not necessarily to know exactly what a mission is. Indeed, it’s usually against God's Will to precisely know what has been set for you.

It compromises the "tests" of life.

If we knew exactly what God expected, it would make the “test” too easy – take away the free will -- and make no mistake: life is a constant test.

When we succeed, we purify our souls and help our families – who are often with us on this journey.

In fact, some missions may be focused almost entirely on relationships.

Or, a mission may have to do with what we do for other people in the world – a job, a vocation, a friendship, or a ministry.

The Lord has put you where He wants you and wants you to minister to others in whatever role you have. Great souls are to be found at all stations of life. Maybe He has set your mission as a janitor, a mailman, a lawyer.

No matter what has happened to you in your life -- no matter how you may have strayed, and no matter how late in the game it seems -- remember that God can always go back to the original plan He had for you.

If you’re prayerful, if you repent, if you seek to work for Him in whatever work on earth He has assigned to you, He can allow circumstances to occur in a way that recovers what you may have lost.  

Rising to the task means fulfilling whatever plan God has for you. It means diligence. It means excellence in whatever it is you do (whether the world considers your vocation “small” or “large”).

We can ask for special assistance in finding our own missions when we take Communion.

A mission always involves faith, service, and love. It also means purity. We are meant to cleanse ourselves in this lifetime. We are meant to cleanse into drops of His affection. These drops spread His power. They are like dye – bringing beautiful colors and nullifying the works of the enemy. If we do not love, we are missing our mission. Love means purity of intention. If we are in the field of education, it means teaching because we love those we teach (and not simply to draw a paycheck). If we work in a restaurant, it is to satisfy others. If it is a doctor, it is having the motive of helping others. When a cook prays while cooking, or a doctor while examining, or a teacher before entering a classroom, something uniquely good is added to the finished product, and this is God’s touch, which is part of every person’s mission. It is the enemy who distorts our missions into selfishness – who tempts a doctor to work for his own luxury or a salesman to grab everything he can and this we must purify.

When we die, we’ll be astonished at why everything that occurred to us happened and we will see that there are no tragedies in this life if we keep our eyes on God and the afterlife (tragedies are lessons). 

Everything is an opportunity to shine before God.

[Michael Brown's Life Missions, Family Healing]

[Note also: Michael Brown retreats: June 14: Philadelphia-New Jersey and August 16: Danbury, Connecticut]

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