"If the highest aim of a captain were to preserve his ship, he would keep it in port forever."
— Saint Thomas Aquinas
It seems St Tommy (as he was affectionately known in the halls of St Martha's Schools in NE Philly) might have had John 17 in mind when he wrote this. Jesus specifically prays for the church to go out into the world as He was sent into it by the Father. Lets see, He came as a baby (check), He grew in stature as He grew in understanding, He selflessly shared his life and resources (social and spiritual power/influence, material resources) with many who crossed His path - and the ones who didn;t receive, well - did they really want it? He lived and ministered and preached under the Power and the Presence of the Holy Spirit's ministry through Him - and He died the same way. Abandoned and soon forgotten by many - except those whom He had personally touched.
In order for the captain to achieve his highest aim, he must set sail and take the boat places he may have never been before - because its the breeze, the smell of the salt air, and the sights and sounds of the next port that demands his attention and cativates his imagination.
As a follower of Jesus, is not our highest aim to be sent as He was sent? To set sail and take the gospel wherever the wind of the Holy Spirit takes us - because its the obedient fulfillment of God's purposes and plans that should demand our attention and captivate our imagination.
When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. "I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.
I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. "I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them."
he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, 
