What I hate about
that question, the “Why are you traveling,” question, is also the
reason I like it, because sometimes it doesn’t end a conversation,
sometimes it turns the whole conversation to deeper things. Like the
30-something English guy in Kenya who asked it about 10 minutes into
our chat. We talked about Jesus and Christianity for 10 or 15
minutes before going to throw the football around with Tres.
I like that
question as much as I hate it because some people don’t think
missionaries are a drag. Some people think missionaries are just
like other people, different, interested in things like world soccer
or Italian food, and not just convert-making machines, and I like
this question because it tells me something about the questioner.
But the days of
that question are nearing an end. Instead the question will, “Oh,
you were in Kenya/Thailand/Croatia/Ireland/etc? What were you doing
there?” It’s the same question really. Maybe I will always be at
the mercy of people’s boxes of what a Christian, what a missionary
is?
That’s okay. I
shouldn’t let it bother me because at the end of the day, I am Joseph
Christ Bunting, filled with some kind of injected love for the people
around me, a love which longs to talk about the deeper things with
people, a love unconcerned with boxes because it is irredeemably
free, a love which will be a missionary always, box or no, World Race
or no. Break boxes break!
