The Grand Canyon University (GCU) mission statement is a practical and powerful call to make a global change through our love for Jesus shining into dark places in the world. We can have many aspirations and goals, we can even accomplish them as those around us give us thanks at our effort, insight and motivation. But, as we look in the mirror before our completed accomplishments or accepted praise, who are we?
When we look at the “love chapter” in 1 Corinthians 13, it begins with a challenge of the emptiness of accomplishment without love. “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing,” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3, NIV). Note that no matter what is accomplished on the surface, without love, “I am nothing…I gain nothing.”
Beyond all the things we can accomplish in our lives, if we forget to love (especially those close to us) we are seen by God as an empty shell focusing on motion for man rather than faithfulness to the heart and mission of God.
A clear example of this is illustrated with Moses leading over a million people through the desert to the Promised Land. What a job! He orchestrated the work of God by providing the direction and provisions of food and water. Moses even judged community spats as people lived in the conflict of close living quarters. Through all this, Moses sent his wife and two sons to live with his father-in-law. Well, Jethro, his father-in-law, came to him with his wife and sons and some timely wisdom that changed how Moses lived out his mission.