All my life I have been groomed for efficiency, productivity and success.
Poor grades in school were not tolerated, TV watching in excess was unacceptable, extracurricular activities were scheduled for almost every day of the week.
Time was a vanishing commodity to be packed to overflowing in an attempt to avoid reaching the end having left something undone or not attempted.
“On time” meant five minutes early, “prepared” meant “well-versed in Plans A-Z,” “success” meant nothing less than superior expertise and competency.
I have left the sprint and joined the casual meandering of a slow-paced, somewhat aimless lifestyle.
Life is not devoid of industry but the routine list of chores is not a list to be checked off as much as a lifestyle to be lived.
Ministry on the mission field does not operate on the clock.
Demands are minimal at best and a lifestyle centered around relationships is not quantifiable.
Success is not measured on a graph and no tally marks declare on missionary’s effectiveness superior to another’s.
At first, this lifestyle is, in all honesty, quite boring.
Relative understimulation serves to attack the very foundation of our hard-earned, rewarded, even fulfilling American indoctrination.
Expectations of structure, advancement, reward, luxury, compensation (and the like) quickly undergo the need to be re-evaluated.
This lifestyle is about stopping along the way to speak to someone and leaving three hours later with a new friend.
It’s about doing mundane chores with others.
It’s about commenting on the weather and if changes are likely.
It’s living a life of love and service to others.
It’s about being broken – feeling something for others and living as though they mattered.
