How was I called into the mission field?
That is a good question that I have trouble answering. I have always felt like missions was something that God put in my heart to pursue. I don't really remember a time that I didn't have mission work on my mind. I believe that I really started praying about doing long term mission work when I started college. College is the time when people start thinking about their future and what they want their career to look like. I had no answer to the question, "What do you want to be when you grow up" and I still don't have a clear picture of that. Picking a field of study was really difficult for me because I could see the potential each major had to offer and I didn't have a strong pull towards any of them.
If I had to answer the question now I would say my dream job is one where I love people and make them feel loved and wanted. I think that is why missions is something that I have always been interested in. God wants people to know He loves them and they are important to Him. That fact is difficult to fathom in some ways. There are SIX BILLION people on this earth and God loves ALL of them and ALL of them are important to Him. No human being is capable of having the same understanding and love for everyone on the planet that God does. I think people fall into the trap of making God human and telling themselves God can't possibly love everyone in the world, but His love is something that is beyond any human comprehension and that is why it's so great. We will never understand how God is able to love everyone so much, and that is the point. If we understood it, it wouldn't be as amazing.
Another thing that has called me into missions is how much the Bible talks about the importance of sharing Jesus and our faith with others. A verse that helps me understand the importance of missions is James 1:27. "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." My faith is dependent on loving others. It cannot be seperated from it. That is why missions is important to me. For me, missions isn't necessarily one of many ways to be faithful to God, it's part of THE way to be faithful to God. Missions doesn't just occur during a trip that has been planned for a certain amount of time. Missions is about sharing my faith every day. It is something that I need to do more of daily and I have been challenging myself to do more of in the past year. I encourage you to do the same and pray those you share with will receive what you are giving them with open hearts.
