My wife and I are all in on Mission Impossible. We’ve seen them all. In fact, in preparation for the final movie in the series that was recently released, we rewatched all seven preceding films. Let me give you a few thoughts on Mission: Impossible.
Let’s start with the name. Mission: Impossible? Tom Cruise has made eight of these things. At the very least, it’s time to rename the series to Mission: Very Unlikely or Mission: This One’s Gonna Be a Toughie. Who exactly is in charge of gauging the difficulty level of these missions? Here’s another observation:
I love Mission: Impossible, but the reality is, my life doesn’t look much like Ethan Hunt’s.
In the movies, Ethan Hunt faces truly impossible missions:
Averting nuclear disaster
Recovering an AI source code from a sunken Russian submarine
Infiltrating the CIA
Disarming a dangerous bioweapon
And perhaps the most impossible mission of all: Tom Cruise pretending to be a big tough guy at 5’7″ and a buck-twenty.
My “mission impossibles” are a bit different. I’ve never had to jump a gorge on a motorcycle or parachute onto a train. But here are some missions I’ve faced recently:
Figuring out what to get my wife for her birthday
Going to Costco for a chicken and actually leaving with just a chicken
I asked my friend and humor columnist Jeff Girod, for some “regular guy” mission impossibles. Can you relate to any of these?
Getting the plumber to actually arrive sometime between the promised window of noon and 4 p.m.
Creating a 7-character password you can remember that must include an uppercase letter, lowercase letter, number, and symbol.
Meeting someone from Ireland or Australia and not immediately imitating their accent the moment they’re out of earshot.
When the gate agent says, “Enjoy your trip,” not reflexively responding, “You too.”
And finally—this one felt particularly accurate:
Tom Cruise acting in an entire 120-minute movie without a plot device that requires him to sprint somewhere at top speed, which—given his age—is now slightly faster than an ice cream truck.
Our “Mission: Impossible” moments don’t involve nuclear bombs, but that doesn’t make them any less real.
Here are some of the impossible missions people like us face:
Restoring passion to a distant marriage
Parenting children who once adored you but now barely acknowledge you
Finding purpose in a job that feels soul-sucking
Overcoming childhood trauma long after moving out
Waking up depressed day after day
So why would a loving God allow us to face these kinds of impossible missions?
Most of life’s important lessons come from miles of bad road. I wish we all grew through lottery wins and solid investments, but that hasn’t been my experience.
Let me give you an example. A few years ago, our garage door broke. My daughter pushed the button to bring it down—unfortunately, a beach chair was in the way. Good news: the ten-dollar chair was fine. Bad news: the thousand-dollar garage door was crumpled beyond repair.
I called a garage door repairman to come out and fix it. The moment he saw my garage, we became instant friends. I had a ‘73 Plymouth Roadrunner at the time, and this guy was a car guy. I think I got the old car guy discount. (Pretty cool huh?)
Then he found out I was a Christian. He said,
“I don’t like Christians. Every Christian I know believes because something bad happened to them.”
I don’t think that’s always true, but in many cases, he’s got a point. So I said,
“That’s true. But you don’t call the garage repairman unless your garage is broken.”
Pretty good comeback, right? Usually, my best comebacks show up three hours late. But this time? Nailed it. The reality is, most people don’t invite God in until they’re in need. Impossible missions tend to bring us to that place.
The Bible is filled with people God gave impossible missions to:
Job lost everything
Jeremiah preached for 40 years without a single convert
The early Christians were persecuted and killed
Did God not love them? Of course He did. He was using those moments to shape them.
Most of the time, I believe God is working on my behalf in my impossible missions. But I’ll be honest: I get weary waiting for resolution.
But something powerful happens in the waiting.
God works even when we don’t see it. Behind the scenes, He’s writing your story.
“Those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.” —Isaiah 40:31
Ornithologists say birds have three methods of flight:
Flapping – Birds keep their wings in constant motion just to stay in the air. Hummingbirds flap 70 times per second. Effective, but exhausting.
Gliding – The bird builds up speed, then coasts. It’s more graceful but doesn’t get you very far.
Soaring – This is the eagle’s specialty. Eagles use rising warm air currents to soar to great heights—without moving a feather. They’ve been clocked at 80 mph, all without flapping.
When I read Isaiah, I ask myself: How often do I soar? How often do I trust God and rise above my circumstances instead of wallowing in them?
Unfortunately, my answer is: not often.
Too often, I’m a flapper:
Money worries – flap, flap, flap
Church problems – flap, flap
Family struggles – flap, flap, flap
I try to flap my way out of trouble when God says,
“Wait. Trust me. If you put your life in My hands, I’ll help you soar.”
When life gives us an impossible mission, the key is to learn to wait.
My prayer—for both you and me—is that we come out of our crises stronger, more mature, and closer to God. That might just make the impossible mission worth it.
Jesus’ brother, James, puts it this way:
“Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.”
—James 1:2-4 (MSG)
John Ortberg said it like this:
“God is not nearly as concerned with where His people are going as who they will be when they get there.”
God will resolve your impossible missions. I’m sure of it.
The only question is: Who do you want to be when you get there? Because if your goal is growth and maturity, it all happens in the waiting
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