By Wayne Schwab

God is on mission. God is at work in the world everywhere, every moment, to overcome evil – whatever blocks love and justice – and to bring and to increase love and justice. Love is valuing the other person and helping that person to live life as fully as possible. Justice is the public face of love. Justice is how we love in a “crowd” when we cannot see those we affect face-to-face.  When you cannot have face-to-face relationships, you work for everyone to have equal access to the good things in life. Our world today is in desperate need of Christians seeking to be loving and just wherever they are, all the time – in both public and private life.

Wherever you find love and justice, or the need for them, you find God at work.

Jesus Christ is the center of God’s mission for Christians. God’s power over evil, sin, and death has come among us in Jesus Christ. The story of Jesus is one of power over sickness, evil, sin, and death. Jesus is the victor – the victor over sickness, evil, sin, and death!

Jesus comes proclaiming the kingdom of God: the rule of God in human life, the power of God at work among us now.  His words and actions demonstrate this proclamation:

• “If it is by the Spirit of God I cast out demons, then the kingdom – the power – of God has come upon you.” [Matt 12:28]
• “Who is this that the winds and the waves obey him?” (Mark 4:41)
• “He gave them authority over the unclean spirits” (Mark 6:7) so that his disciples might preach and heal.

Each of us can choose to walk a spiritual path. That journey inward / journey outward must, each day, unite prayer and action. Life is indeed hectic and overly busy. The Christian needs to learn to discern what God is doing in the midst of a busy moment and join what God is doing there now. That is the journey outward. The journey inward, then, is learning to discern God at work within us in the busy moments of daily life. So that is our focus for a missionary spirituality – learning to discern what God is doing and joining God in that work.