What is Your Mission?

The other morning, I woke up from a dream that has stayed with me ever since. I was still a religious ed teacher talking with an older more experienced teacher and we were discussing my lesson plans for the day. She looked at what I had prepared and, with a surprised look on her face, said, “But where is your mission?” I knew she was not talking about what we commonly refer to as a “mission statement”, but asking, “What is God sending you to do in that classroom today?”

I often hear people insisting on the importance of setting clear goals, of having long-term and short-term objectives, of striving for specific outcomes. I do not deny that these are important. But that may be putting the cart before the horse. Should I not first ask, “What is your mission? What is God sending me to do today?” When I ask that question first, I hear an echo of the words of Mary to the wine stewards, “Do whatever he tells you.”