Hello and welcome to my very first blog!
It is long overdue but finally here. I had to make the decision to cast any perfectionism aside and just start writing. So here goes…
Telling people that you are postponing school to travel and serve for a year can be interesting. I have received overwhelming support, for which I am so thankful. But some are still a little inquisitive as to why exactly i’m forfeiting my freshman year of college to do something a little crazy and unconventional. So, let me explain why.
To do so I am going to tell you a story about myself. Imagine for a moment a young Brooke. Now, if you know anything about me, you know that my room usually was and still is a complete mess. Hence the messy room, one day my dad came to me and said, “Brooke, clean your room.” Pretty straightforward, right? Wanting to honor my father, I took his words very seriously. I wrote them down and highlighted them and meditated on them. I called my friends and invited them over to talk about what, “clean your room,” meant to them. I even memorized the words and would recite them often.
So, at the end of the week, my dad came to me and asked if I had cleaned my room. I told him all about how deeply I understood the words and how much work I had put into studying them. He was impressed and honored, but he asked again. Had I actually cleaned my room? The answer was no. I knew the words better than ever and exactly what cleaning my room meant, but since I had never actually done the deed and cleaned my room, I hadn’t obeyed him.
By now you might have figured out that this didn’t actually happen. In reality I probably didn’t clean my room and he probably threatened to sell all of my clothes. But it introduces an interesting point. The Lord has commanded us to go out and love others. Memorizing His Word and praying about it is great and so important! But if we spend all of our time talking and reading about the things the Father has called us to do instead of actually doing them, can we confidently say that we obeyed God?
This is how I see mission work. He says it again and again in Mathew, Mark, 1 Corinthians, Acts, and more. “Go into the world and preach the gospel to all creation.” (Mark 16:15) He doesn’t tell us to discuss going out into the world or think about maybe going out into the world. He says very clearly, “go.” How am I supposed to “make disciples of all nations,” if I am too busy highlighting exactly what i’m supposed to do? It’s like reading, annotating, and meditating on IKEA cabinet assembly instructions and expecting to get a fully built cabinet without actually doing any building. The studying is beneficial, but the action is key.
So, why go serve abroad for 9 months? Because I want to take action. I want to share love and compassion to people all over the world. I want to go and obey. It’s time to clean my room.
Thank you all so much for your love and support.
Until next time,
Brooke Bigelow
P.S. : Mom, if you are reading this, this is not an excuse to tell me to clean my room.
