How I was Called to the Mission Field (the abridged version): Jesus ruined my life and gave me no other option.
How I was called to the mission field (the extended version): “It was the summer of 1963, when everybody called me Baby and it didn’t occur to me to mind. It was before Kennedy got shot, before The Beatles, when I wanted to join the Peace Corps and I didn’t think I’d ever find a guy as great as my dad.”
Just kidding. It wasn’t the summer of 1963, it was the summer of 2009, and nobody called me Baby so it didn’t have to occur to me that I should mind. Kennedy was shot 46 years prior to ‘The Call’ and the only reason I have heard The Beatles (aside from the fact that they’re like, iconic) is because of the movie ‘Parent Trap’ (starring pre-Mean Girls Lindsey Lohan). I’d be lying if I told you I had never considered joining the Peace Corps and I remain convinced I will never find a guy as great as my dad.
At the time of ‘The Call’ I had been going to the same church camp since the third grade (Ceta Canyon) and had many very real encounters with the Lord there. In typical church camp style, I fully expected Thursday night to be ‘cry-night.’ Cry-night is where everybody realizes how broken we really are and how broken the world we live in really is. We then proceed to grieve that by ugly crying for hours on end with the close friends the Lord has given us for the 4 years of awkward hair styles (because let’s be real, that doesn’t end in junior high) and questionable-decisions-made-in-the-name-of-rebellion/coolness/we-don’t-care-what-you-think known as high school.
So, you can only imagine my surprise when I was thrown a curve-ball and cry-night for me was on Wednesday. I hadn’t prepared myself mentally or emotionally for this! I hadn’t practiced my pretty cry in the mirror that morning because this wasn’t supposed to happen until Thursday!
After a sermon was preached on Wednesday that was the perfect build up the most moving cry-night sermon EVER, Holy Spirit revealed Himself to me and wrecked everything I had planned for myself. I had planned to attain the obviously God-ordained American dream by going to college, finding a husband, buying a house with a white picket fence and having 2.5 kids who were in soccer and ballet, driving a mini-van and providing orange slices and Caprisuns for every sporting event all to be accomplished no later than my 25th year of existence. Sounds great, right?
After Holy Spirit showed up and ruined everything by, you know, calling me to missions and stuff, I saw my perfectly planned life flash before my eyes. I was kneeling at the alter at the front of the Tabernacle as I had many years before, but this time, my heart assumed the same posture as my body. It was in that moment I knew the rest of my life wouldn’t look like I thought it would all the years leading up to that point. Suddenly, I didn’t even know if I was even supposed to apply for college!
Through prayer (between fits of uncontrollable sobbing) and what I now know to be wise counsel, I came to the conclusion that I should, in fact apply for college, and see what the Lord had in store for me after that. The rest, as they say, is history.
