Missions Monday: Come Be A Nobody

God is inviting us to forsake the life of a somebody in order to be a nobody for the sake of heralding the grace of the crucified Christ. Oh, how crucial it is that we hear–and then heed–this call! Echoing Piper’s missional exhortations in his marvelously challenging book Don’t Waste Your Life, which I can’t commend to you with more vigor, Michael Oh writes over at Desiring God,

Jesus is calling people who could compete in the corporate rat race (and win) — but either choose not to so that they can share the gospel with the neediest in Thailand or choose yes so that by excelling in their profession they can give gobs of money away for God’s global cause (something their co-workers wouldn’t understand). I believe that Jesus Christ is calling for well-trained, well-educated, godly, capable, wise, talented nobodies.

This is radical, subversive, and uprooting. It turns worldly ambitions upside-down, rips the American Dream in shreds, and confronts the average Westerner Christian with a refreshingly substantial gospel mandate. You were not meant, Christian, to wile away your time here below chasing men’s praise, caring about the cause of Christ only at appointed times, more interested in earning commission than in fulfilling the Great Commission.

Don’t you know that you were called to a great and harrowing and utterly sure mission, full of adventure and challenge? Don’t you know that you were baptized into so much more than a boring, occasional, as-your-schedule-permits religion, but rather into a glorious cause and eternal communion of High Priest and saints? Don’t you know that you have been entrusted with the only source of true joy and meaning and life and love–in order that you might share it?

Don’t waste your passion. Don’t waste your money. Don’t waste your time. Don’t waste your affections. Don’t waste your life. Become a nobody for the cause; come worship the great Somebody in all His glory.

I encourage you to read the rest of Michael Oh’s article.