I’ve spent a lot of time in the lifeguard stand thinking about this blog the last few weeks. The question, “How were you called in to the mission field”, doesn’t seem to have a simple answer to it. My whole life seems to have lead me to join this missions team, but it wasn’t until a year or so ago that I started considering things from the perspective of God and eternity.
I believe that ever since I was really young God has laid it upon my heart to help and care for people. That is why, after I graduated from high school, I decided to go to college and study in the field of nursing. This occupation seemed to have everything I wanted in a carrier. It offered the opportunity to help people when they were in need, it promised a competitive salary with pretty good job security, after all, people will always be getting sick, right, and it offered a flexible schedule with lots of free time. Nursing as a profession seemed perfect for me up until about a year and a half ago. And it wasn’t over night that I stopped wanting to be a nurse to follow after God. It was a series of events starting with an incident that occurred at my psychological clinical my senior year of nursing school. During an outpatient addiction meeting I disclosed that I smoked marijuana frequently to the group I was sitting in on. To this day I can’t come up with a logical reason as to why I would make this statement in that kind of situation. Although, it was this event and the repercussions that followed that lead me down a path of self evaluation and change.
Facing the punishments of failing the clinical (which would result in at least six more months of school), suspicion from George Mason, or even possible expulsion, I turned to the Bible, and God, for answers. This was something I had not done in years. Over the next few weeks the passage that hit me the hardest was, Matthew 6:24, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” I know that in the Matthew 6 verse Christ is speaking about money, but I believe the passage holds true for other things as well. Christ references money because it is one of the easiest things to make our idol, stealing our love and consuming our lives, something I am sure He knew. I had made myself, and pleasure, my idol and without even realizing it, despising things of God.
This event pushed me to start attending church again regularly, where God and the Bible started to speak to me in a different way than when I was growing up or in high school. The concept of death to self was foreign to me and yet it is a fundamental principle in Christianity, (Galatians 2:20, John 12:25-26, Luke 9:23-25, and Galatians 5:24) just to name a few. Fortunately, even before this incident occurred, I had been planning a cross country bike trip for the summer after I graduated. When I planned this trip I originally thought I would spend a lot of the time just “high” and cruising across the country, again, with the thought being all about me. But with a new focus and view on life, gained from a study of John at church on Sunday morning, I would now use this time to dive into the Word and talk with strangers about their beliefs on how the world came to be, the purpose for life, and about the love of Christ.
I can remember the night when I came to the realization that spreading the gospel was something I wanted to devote myself to for the rest of my days on this earth like it was yesterday. I had spent the day off from riding at Great Basin National park in Eastern Nevada with my riding companions, Charles, an opera singer from California heading to New York, Sebastian and Ruth, a newly wed couple from Germany taking this bike trip for their honeymoon. After a day of relaxing, reading the Word, and prayer, we were all hanging out by the camp fire when a discussion arose about God, religion, creation vs. evolution, the purpose of man and our search for meaning in life. I’m not sure if I was able to sway Sebastian or Ruth from their beliefs in evolution, as they were both Doctors from Germany and had been raised their whole lives believing that the earth was a product of the “big bang” and that the greatest thing that man can hope for in this life is to be content. But after they had gone to sleep, I stayed up underneath the innumerable showing of stars and prayed to God thanking Him for all that he has done for mankind, for His beauty and power, His forgiveness and grace, and that he would lead me down a path that would bring others to Him.
That is a path that I am still on today! I have no doubt that this road has guided me to the World Race. I had planned to go on another bike trip this summer, and actually left in early June. However, I only got 50 miles from home before I broke down emotionally and came to the conclusion that I was in need of Christian support; someone there to pick me up when I would fall (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12). So I returned home where I fell in love with the idea of the World Race. Having the opportunity to live in a small community of young believers, who are also trying to seek God, and serve others, all while ridding themselves of worldly possessions, and hopefully, as much of themselves as possible; giving us the opportunity to rely on God and the Church in a new way. There is no doubt that God will use this time we spend on the World Race to draw the people we meet closer to Him, and in the process build up Godly men and women to strengthen the church and confess the name of Christ in our nation and throughout the world.
How was I called into the mission Field? I'm not sure that God hasn't always been calling me to do missions work. I just know that it wasn't until recently that I was even willing to listen.
