Remember the famous line in the Mission Impossible series? “Your mission, should you choose to accept it…” We have to accept our mission when God offers it to us. It is no one’s choice but ours. Whether that mission is a short-term adventure or a long-term journey, we have to embrace it and not fight it. Jonah ran from his mission when God told him to go to Nineveh. We too can run from God’s plans for our life if we do not have the faith to accept it. Jonah could have simply accepted the task and got going, but he made it so much harder than it had to be by not fulfilling his purpose. Recognize the gifts and talents God has given you and go after the mission He has put in your heart. We must be careful to not run from God’s purpose for our life, which happens when we do not accept His plans. We all have reasons why we might run from God’s purposes; maybe we are too fearful, maybe we think we do not have what it takes, or maybe our pride keeps us from sacrificing. We can make excuses for why we run from God instead of running to Him.

Greatness will always cost you something. When I was in junior high, I ran track and field. I competed in the 800-meter dash, which consists of two laps around the track. I was pretty good at this race, but there was one guy on my team who always beat me. I will never forget Brian. Brian always outran me. Every ribbon I won was for second place because Brian always got first place. But, there was one magical and glorious day in my track and field career that I will never forget. Brian was sick and stayed home from school, which meant he could not compete in the race that evening. Was I finally going to have my moment to shine? Was the first place ribbon going to be mine? Yes! Finally, the ribbon was mine! It didn’t matter how I had won it, I was just happy that I had won.

Not long after my victorious race, the track coach suggested that I try running cross-country. Now understand, I liked to run, but those cross-country folks are crazy. It is one thing to run laps on a flat track that simply goes around and around, ending exactly where it started. But cross-country is insane; running up and down hills, through valleys, around obstacles, and ending up somewhere else entirely different when the race is finished. To me, track was the simple and easy way to run, and cross-country scared me. So I quickly said, “No thank you!” and signed up for another year of track because I wasn’t willing to do something different. 

Sometimes we treat our life’s purpose like I did the idea of running cross-country. We look ahead in our life and see hills, valleys, and obstacles and think that there is no way we can succeed, so we settle for the easy track. However, the easy track just goes in circles and never really takes us anywhere. The cross-country course takes us somewhere; it is much harder, but it takes us somewhere. God never said His purpose would be easy, but He did say He would be with us all the way to the finish. Accept the challenge to live out the adventure God has called you to.