Mission Accomplished

I just finished an email to an old friend. I miss our conversations. He has been through the thick and thin of my life, but always with a helping hand and a positive outlook. I love that about him.

It started me thinking about accomplishments. For so much of my life I was building a resume of experiences and accomplishments. The theory was that these accomplishments would help to further my career. I have always said that I had accomplished everything I wanted to do when I left the field of education. But then it hit me...why do we strive so much for our own accomplishments?

I posted a few days ago about how we accomplish something only to forget about it a short time later (it doesn't take others nearly as long to forget our accomplishments!). If we so easily forget what we done, it begs this question - What types of accomplishments last a lifetime? Is it really important to accomplish anything?

Too much of my life has been focused on me. What things can I do; what things can I experience; what things can I accomplish...When the focus is directed towards God and not towards self, everything changes. I am slowly starting to figure that out.

I think Jesus summed it up best in John:

"I came down from heaven not to follow my own whim but to accomplish the will of the One who sent me." John 6:38 (MsgB)

Mission accomplished.