(one's) mission in life

The ultimate goal or purpose toward which one strives; one's reason or motivation to continue existing, operating, or working. Top-notch customer service is our mission in life, so if you are unsatisfied with your experience with us, we will refund 100% of your payment. Bruce's mission in life has been to serve justice to those who evade the law. A: "Why did Aunt Edna become a nun?" B: "Well, she felt that serving the poor was her mission in life."

a man/woman on a mission

A person who is fiercely determined to do or get what they want. Janet stormed into work like a woman on a mission, heading straight into her boss's office to demand a raise in her salary. When my boyfriend decides he wants to buy something, he turns into a man on a mission. I don't know why Dad is suddenly a man on a mission to clean out the garage, but I have no objections to it!

a man/woman with a mission

A person who is fiercely determined to do or get what they want. Janet stormed into work like a woman with a mission, heading straight into her boss's office to demand a raise in her salary. When my boyfriend decides he wants to buy something, he turns into a man with a mission. I don't know why Dad is suddenly a man on a mission to clean out the garage, but I have no objections to it!

be on a mission

1. To be in pursuit of some specific duty or ambition, especially that which is of particular importance, significance, or seriousness. The spies vanished from public life for months while on a mission to uncover who had bombed the state building. Our company is on a mission to help those less fortunate. That's why we've created a series of new volunteer programs in our local communities. We are on a mission to find out what really happened that day, so we can bring closure to the families of the dead.

2. To be fiercely determined to do or get what one wants. Oh, after I heard how much that slacker Jim makes, I was on a mission—I stormed straight into my boss's office and demanded a raise. When my boyfriend decides he wants to buy something, he's on a mission until he has it in his hands. I don't know why Dad is suddenly a man on a mission to clean out the garage, but I have no objections to it!

mission accomplished

A clichéd phrase said upon the successful completion of a project, task, assignment, milestone, etc. Well everyone, our app has reached 1 million downloads. Mission accomplished! If your goal was to annoy the heck out of all your friends, then mission accomplished.

mission creep

The gradual expansion or widening in scope of a project, action, or task, especially a military operation, beyond its initial goal or objective. Congress is wary of granting the president's request for military authority in the region, fearing a repeat of the mission creep that plagued his last war effort.

on a mission

1. In pursuit of some specific duty or ambition, especially that which is of particular importance, significance, or seriousness. The spies vanished from public life for months while she went on a mission to uncover who had bombed the state building. Our company is on a mission to help those less fortunate. That's why we've created a series of new volunteer programs in our local communities.

2. Fiercely determined to do or get what one wants. After I heard how much that slacker Jim makes, I was on a mission—I stormed straight into my boss's office and demanded a raise. When my boyfriend decides he wants to buy something, he turns into a man on a mission.

up to (one's) neck in alligators

business adage So overcome or preoccupied by various tangential worries, problems, or tasks that one loses sight of the ultimate goal or objective. The full expression is some variation of "When you are up to your neck in alligators, it's easy to forget that the goal was to drain the swamp." I've spent so much time dealing with various infrastructure problems for my new business that I've had no time to actually develop our product properly. I guess it's easy to forget that when up to your neck in alligators, the mission was to drain the swamp.

mission in life

one's purpose in life; the reason for which one lives. Bob's mission in life is to make money. My mission in life is to help people live in peace.

ˌmission acˈcomplished

used when you have successfully completed what you have had to do: Mission accomplished. Let’s go and have a drink.

See also: accomplished, mission

Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017

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References in periodicals archive

Missional thinking therefore needs re-construction in order to withstand the global experience of the secularization of postmodern capitalist societies.

The changing landscape of Christianity and the challenging context of secularism

(51) However, one thing seems clear enough--the entire psychology-Christianity dialogue is missing this crucial missional mindset.

Deeply engaged and strongly perspectival? The impasse in the psychology-Christianity dialogue and its missional resolution

Bishops, church committees, and busy laity will be tempted to simplify this process by trying to find that dynamic, even charismatic, pastor who can light or relight the missional fire in the people, promising, "You lead us and then, when the time is right, we'll do something about mission." Yet, the time for doing something about mission never seems to come; the ownership of that vision is very thin; the multiplying effect is minimal; and the probability that the vision will fade with the departure of the leader is very great.

Reshaping the Mission of the CHURCH

Theological education (disability perspective) as missional formation

Theological Education as Missional Formation: Contributions of the World Council of Churches Ecumenical Disability Advocates Network

THE ART OF NEIGHBORING, a wonderful book by Jay Pathak and Dave Runyon, is a helpful addition to missional literature.

Affluenza: cultura christianity has ruined the church

This specific event from Church On The Other Side, will feature a theme of Missional Team Building, designed for churches and church planters that are beginning the conversation on journeying to missional, from traditionally institutional.

Missional Team Building Forum Presented by Church On The Other Side

The core of the book is P.'s appraisal of three theological approaches to the church: "Word-Event," "Communion," and "Missional." P.

Who Is the Church? An Ecclesiology for the Twenty-First Century

Peterson juxtaposes an ecclesiology of the word-event (Luther, Barth, Ebeling, Forde) with an ecclesiology of communion (Congar, Vatican II, the Ecumenical Movement, Jenson) on the way to an examination of the missional church movement (Newbigin, Guder, Van Gelder, Barger).

Who Is the Church? An Ecclesiology for the Twenty-First Century

13:34-35, 17:20-23, and 20:21 figure prominently), arguing for the connection between the church's calls to be ecumenical and missional. Ecumenical engagement is a function of faithful discipleship, a theme Armstrong carries through in successive chapters on "One Lord," "One Church," and "One Mission." Obedience to Christ's sovereignty places disciples in the one church, a fellowship of love and mutual submission, a catholicity of unity in diversity.

Subhash Anand, May They All Be One." Towards an Ecumenical Theology of the Church

This is significant, as the missional identities of these churches were shaped within a dehumanizing environment controlled by European political and economic systems of colonialism and slavery.

The experience of the United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands

Part 3, mission and ecclesiology, provides practical insight into the following issues: indigenous partnerships and contextualization that help to overcome fears and prejudices; dialogue that moves toward relationship; authentic witness as it relates to the people of God, evangelism and the church; Christian spiritual missiology that challenges us to strive for Christlikeness and the restoration of the image of God as a witness in the real world; practical application of the position and work of a missionary as a learner and servant; and missional practice as applied to the eucharist.

Evangelical, ecumenical, and anabaptist missiologies in conversation

Further fieldwork and research has led him to write here about the essential or definitional characteristics of a covenantal understanding of ethnicity, whether ethnicity is a created and therefore stable phenomenon or an incidental one, whether the Hebrew ethnic group have an active rather than passive centrifugal missional responsibility to other peoples of the earth, and how this biblical covenantal understanding can be applied to ecclesial and socio-political structures.

The concept of ethnicity in the bible; a theological analysis

The authors of The Missional Church characterize North America as "a post-Christian society, or what might better be labeled as a post-churched culture." (13) The general feeling is that American Christianity is trapped in modernity and thus has little to say to men and women living beyond modernity; it is in collusion with nationalism and thus assists the cultural agenda of the powerful; and it is controlled by consumerism and thus unable to speak against its idolatrous consumption.

The future of Baptists and missions: what is the missions future for Baptists? The question is more than a rhetorical one or the speculation of an academician

Elim Events Missional Community leader Pete Murchie said: "We want to help the town and we know some households are going through hard times."

Families can find treasure in town

It is these turns in my story that we can interrogate as potent missional signposts to engage in fashioning an African woman's or feminist perspective on transforming discipleship.

Transforming Disciples, Transforming the Future: Young African Women and the Search for a Liberated Future