It seems that as leaders, we often attempt to persuade others to change their lives by counting all the ways their lives will improve, be enriched and more fulfilled. But we often forget to mention is that their lives must be radically devoted to a specific mission, which will demand 100% of them … nothing less. And why should we soften the call? If any of us have experienced true transformation, as we see occur through Kirk’s life, hasn’t it been the result of giving our lives away, not grasping for more for ourselves?
I went to see Star Trek, and to be honest, I wasn’t expecting all that much. I grew up watching Star Trek with my dad and two brothers, so nostalgia and some good popcorn was all I was shooting for. But to my surprise, I absolutely loved this film. There’s just something so compelling when a character in a story undergoes a complete transformation. James Kirk was a young guy with a history of loss, and now he was creating a future of failure. He had decided that living for himself was his best bet.
But then the story takes a turn.
The residing captain over Starship Enterprise, Captain Pike, happens to break up a fistfight that James Kirk finds himself engaged in, and uses this small window of opportunity to call something greater out of Kirk. Captain Pike didn’t promise James Kirk comfort, safety or popularity. He offered a chance for Kirk to risk it all, to use his talents for the greater good and to invest his life in one simple but powerful thing: a mission.
It is this mission which calls a more noble and sacrificial James Kirk out.
His personality doesn’t change much, but his heart changes completely.
It seems that as leaders, we often attempt to persuade others to change their lives by counting all the ways their lives will improve, be enriched and more fulfilled. But we often forget to mention is that their lives must be radically devoted to a specific mission, which will demand 100% of them … nothing less. And why should we soften the call? If any of us have experienced true transformation, as we see occur through Kirk’s life, hasn’t it been the result of giving our lives away, not grasping for more for ourselves?
God has this incredibly non-strategic plan for calling humanity unto Himself. He asks us to care more about the mission than ourselves. And that mission is nothing short of impossible; it is reconciling broken human beings to a perfect and holy God. In Star Trek, the people who join the crew of the Starship Enterprise are signing up to bring, restore and keep peace among the different galaxies surrounding the Earth. They are ambassadors and even fighters for the greatest value known to man: love.
It can be so easy to sit in a theatre in our comfortable reclining seats and admire from a distance how people lay it all on the line to fight for what really matters. But it’s a whole different story when it’s us out there in the real world. The admiration is quickly forgotten, and living missional lives becomes just another plot line for a great film, but certainly not for our actual lives.
For those of us who have this constant angst inside to change things, and for those of us that call ourselves leaders, there is a challenge that we must not forget. Our lives are on loan to us, and they are to be spent on this Earth fighting for what we believe in, and on pulling others into the dangerous territory we call true love. It is love that reconciles us to one another, and ultimately, to the God of this vast universe.
We can be the Captain Pike in our own story, not only living on mission, but calling others to join this radical movement of love.
So, the next time you have the pleasure of watching a great film, nestled into that comfy theatre chair, eating overpriced junk food, maybe you should do something radical like jump out of that seat and start living it, and rather than just watching it. There is nothing like a good science fiction movie to remind you what is truly real in this life, and what’s really worth fighting for.
