Today’s Passage: Luke 4:39-44

You may have read that successful people are focused. They are on mission. They also focus on relationships.

My bookshelves are filled with all sorts of books to help me improve. I am constantly trying to integrate the teaching points of all the various books and come up with key principles to live by. Perhaps looking at how Jesus lives would be the best study for such an effort.

Consider that Jesus doesn’t lock himself away. The text reveals a pattern. He teaches in synagogues. He heals (this chapter says “everyone”). He operates in the world, seeing it as both physical and spiritual.

And he moves on. He doesn’t get bogged down. It is not that he is blowing off the people, in fact, it’s quite the opposite. His mission is people, to engage as many as he can, without letting a few own him. He has focus on his mission.

I am not suggesting that we all become itinerant traveling preachers. I am suggesting that Jesus knows his mission. His situation required he move about. But he does not race past people, trying to check off that he has visited every town. No, instead, he understands his business is engaging people in order to show them the love of God.

How about us. What is your life’s mission? How do the relationships in your life fit into it? I am certainly asking myself this question.