The other evening, in a weaker moment, (my wife says I am lying – I had been wanting to rewatch it for a while) I watched the Blues Brothers again. The unbelievable mayhem and pandemonium was still as funny as it was all those years ago. It was their tag line that got me thinking, “We’re on a mission from God.”
Once Elwood and Jake understood their task, nothing would stop them. The Illinois police, Nazis, a maniacal ex girl friend, The Chicago police and the army all failed to halt their progress. They were single minded and did not count the cost, to themselves (or anybody else for that matter).
The thought crossed my mind, “What if Christians were like that?” How would the world look? If we go back to the apostle Paul: imprisonment, beatings and riots did not thwart his real “mission from God.” William Wilberforce, William Booth, Loren Cunningham (YWAM) are just three amongst a myriad of examples who were on their “mission from God”. There are the many unkown (to us) in Asian, African, South American and Chinese Churches who are quietly (and sometimes not so quietly!) carrying out their missions.
In Australia there were the Dutch migrants who revitalised Christian education in the 1960s and 70s with the Christian Parent Controlled School movement which has since morphed into Christian Education National. Their impact went far beyond their numbers and nationality. The idea of unschooled Dutch migrants setting up and running schools was considered laughable by many. Fifty years later thousands have flocked to these and similar schools around Australia.
The fact remains though, that in western countries, like Australia, we need spiritual Elwoods and Jakes, or should I say, Pauls and Williams and Lorens to halt the slide into godlessness; a godlessness and spiritual paucity that that is feeding the hopelessness that so many feel today. What is required is a vision of what God’s Word calls for, and a passion and zeal to see it carried out. It requires people who know and understand to the core of their being that they are “on a mission from God”.
I would love to hear from you what you believe the “missions from God” are for Australia and Australians today.
Travels from Ur 