I want to do a little exercise (no workout clothes needed). So pause the show, stop the music, get rid of the distractions, and I want you to think about the following word for 3 seconds. Ready?
MISSIONS …..1…..2…..3…..
Ok, what did you picture? What did your picture make you feel? This is what I pictured for the three seconds:
I saw these kids running around laughing with an American girl in a long skirt laughing in the middle. The colors were vibrant and there was simply joy.
That was my three seconds of picturing missions. But I need to tell you and try to help you understand that it is so much more than that. Than whatever you pictured. I am in a community that supports and embraces missions and the call people get to spread the gospel.
But missions is so much more than the 15-minute nugget visiting missionaries give when returning from the field. And I know right now that I don’t have the words to fully describe it because Missions is God’s heart, and that’s not something my human mind can comprehend.
But I will try. God loves people. He loves us. And He misses us. There are billions of people that He wants to love but can’t because of sin. Missions is that bridge. Missions is God’s way of reaching those people that have been shrouded with darkness. His children, those who know His name and call Him Savior, get to be His soldiers that go into the darkness and turn the lights on.
And yet, missions is still so much more than that. For people that go, the do-ers, the feet on the ground, missions is home. It’s belonging. It’s living the truest life that can be lived. And it’s extremely raw. For people God has called to be missionaries, God continually transforms them and pushes them to the next level. There is no comfort in mission life except that you are walking in the will of God. We go for God and people, and yet, God wrecks our lives and builds it up to match the level He needs us to be at. I can point to major life transformations that happened every time I went out into the world for God.
And yet, missions is still so much more than that. It’s a unifying factor that the entire church is called to. Not everyone is supposed to go, but everyone is commanded to be a part of missions. Whether it’s through praying, through giving, through connecting missionaries to contacts, the congregation is transformed and strengthened when their focus is on God’s heart for His children lost in darkness. With each financial gift, there’s a story and God behind it. Behind every missionary, there’s an army of prayer warriors opening doors for them.
And still, missions is so much more than that. It’s planting seeds, working hard, praying harder, singing loud, hugging the dirty, smiling at the ugly, loving the broken, being broken, being lost, stepping out when you’re scared, leaning on strangers, giving sacrificially, risking death, risking jail, missing family, missing birthdays, gaining family across the world. Missions is God’s heart so it must become our heart as well.
