The Great Commission: So Much More

I’ve never been one for New Year resolutions. Change is something I consider to simply be one decision and subsequent action away. But for the past two years I’ve been walking into new years with a simple one liner from God that themes what the focus of that year will be.

Initially, I thought my word for 2017 would be: Against All Odds. That was before the Lord gently nudged me to something altogether different: So Much More. When I look back on the past year, whew, was it ever so much more. More than I could have dreamed up or imagined. Full of changes and transitions. Marked by encounters with the Lord that have left me forever changed.

Isn’t it just like God to meet us in ways that astound and overwhelm in the best of ways?

Having a way with words has always been my thing but I must confess I have wrestled with how to even begin describing the heart and mind of God for the marketplace in this post. When I asked Him for utterance, He distilled it for me with simplicity and grace.

It all comes down to these three words:

SO MUCH MORE.

So much more than joylessly going through the motions to earn a living.

So much more than “marketable” careers that make no consideration for the in-built purpose in every human being. Kinda like using a fork to drink soup because the fork is more marketable than the spoon and since everyone is drinking soup, so must we.

So much more than the illusion of safety in a monthly salary…so much more than the salaries that need salaries to keep us alive.

So much more than hustling from a posture of striving where rest is an unobtainable unicorn.

So much more than good activity in the natural realm – where manifestation and execution happens – devoid of divine revelation about the spiritual realm – where change is actually instituted.

So much more than “good” devoid of God.

So much more than having the entirety of our identity defined by an academic grade, a job title or a job grade.

So much more than being stepped on and taken advantage of by people who should know better but fail to do better.

So much more than crucifying others for our own profit and self-preservation.

So much more than passing on the mess and the malice thrown our way because that’s just how things are and why should I be any better if better was not given to me.

So much more than school and work environments that wear down our spirits and bodies turning us into strangers to ourselves and others.

So much more than crack of dawn risings and the midnight oil burnings whose success lasts but a fleeting instant before we have to do it all over again.

So much more than an unfortunately popular version of Sunday Christianity which still leaves us powerless to confront the Monday demons.

So much more than passively sitting on the sidelines helplessly looking on at a raging war that we don’t even know we have victory over.

If we would only step onto the battlefield with our sling and five stones. So much more would the Lord do in us and through us.

In our day and age, we spend more time in our workplaces and schools than we do anywhere else. It stands to reason that the Lord is just as concerned about our proverbial 9-5 during the week as He is our Sunday activities.

We were made for more than the rat race that never ends. The veil of ignorance that compartmentalizes our faith from other areas of our life – including work – has been torn. But many have yet to see what that freedom looks like in their every day.

With much needed help from the Holy Spirit, we want to broaden your sight even as we continue to have ours expanded. That you may be able to occupy in the spirit and in the natural that which our Father ordained to be yours even before your birth. As far as your eyes can see is a promise to us through Abraham that still holds true to this day.

I embark on this year with a new personal theme for 2018, yet still intimately carrying So Much More with me in my spirit for the eternal truth that it is.

May 2018 be so much more for you and all you hold dear.

Happy New Year!