To go or to stay.
Often I think of life overseas. Kind of in that, “Oh if only I could hear tuk-tuks buzzing past or hear the markets with their bustle and boom.” Then I walk outside and I hear neighbors disagreeing over where dogs are pooping and I’m brought back to my own reality. It’s not a bad one, far from it, it’s just different. Different from my dreams and hopes, yet is it?
A lot of us have been stung with the missions bug. I’m one of those stung and it’s something I’ve wrestled with ever since I landed in TYS over three years ago. It’s not that I haven’t loved being stateside. It’s been a dream come true. Really. But do you ever have that itch to go back out? Sometimes I almost feel a little selfish feeling it. Am I escaping my responsibilities to America by packing up and heading out to the far corners of the earth? What about vaccinations and organic baby purée?
Is it the easier road to choose missions when life here seems so “easy” and “perfect”?
But is it really so perfect when trucks have signs saying “don’t dump your baby.” Or when some of the poorest people in this hemisphere happen to live a few miles away from me?
Missions, ministry, whatever we shall call it is quite literally the life in front of us should we choose to live it His way. (Sorry T-Mobile lady, I had this epiphany after we chatted.)
But really, it’s easy to live for the ending when we’re smack dab in the middle of life. It’s easy to look at what’s next when everything around us appears mundane and so darn comfortable. It’s easy to bypass the chatty neighbor when we’re late for church or not smile at the complainer two doors down when we’re heading to brunch with friends from bible study. Maybe it’s not easy for you, but it comes quite naturally to me. It’s gross and I’m not proud of it, but I’m thankful to know I do it.
So the question is, what now? Do I continue on towards my mission to get back to missions or should I start being still and waiting on Him to lead me. Do I look outward and not inward as much and offer that smile, that helping hand, that thing called love?
I can tell a good story about things He did on the Race, but what stories can I share about how He’s dramatically impacting lives here, right now?
Like how he’s connecting hurting kids with awesome, new parents. Or how he’s using churches in LA to shift the culture. Or how surfers hear Jesus on Sundays because one church faithfully meets there so that everyone hears the gospel?
Because things are happening all around me. Jesus is being proclaimed and lives are being changed. So should I wait for my mission or join the mission here? Maybe one day, He will send me to the far corners, and on that day, I’ll be dancing the whole way to the airport. Until then, while I’m being still and waiting, I’m going to join in on the movement God is doing in America. It’s radical, it’s life changing and it makes my hands feel tingly with excitement.
What are your thoughts? I love learning from others.
