Why do we think life is all about us? Why do we travel halfway around the world to “serve Jesus with all we have” and then complain about the heat, the traffic, the food, the living conditions, and the hours in which we are asked by our contacts to serve? We’ve been on the Race for almost 10 months and this is still an issue. Even if your not on the World Race program yourself, check your motives for the ministry you are currently involved with. I know it’s been a long year, but why is home so different than out here? Does “ministry” stop when we get home. Is going home a time out in this eternal job we are called to? If we are called to share the Gospel and Love others, does it stop when we get home? What makes the plains of Africa, or the slums of India, or the jungles of Vietnam any different from America? That’s what I’m trying to figure out. America is another culture, another continent geographically, and it’s all comfortable. Why should I separate where I should be missional and where I can rest from my role as a Son of God. You can’t! And the reason is the LIFE IS NOT ABOUT YOU and SURE ISN’T ABOUT ME!
I’m not condemning anybody, but it’s starting to get to me out here. Sure there are rats in the hallway. Sure it’s hot outside. Sure ministry deosn’t look the same as it did a week ago, or a month ago, or even anything near what was expected. Get over it. Why are we here? What is our purpose here? Why do we feel we deserve better than what we have?
In his book “Adam’s Return”, Richard Rohr says, “What is all this Jesus talk about going barefoot, taking nothing for your journey, having only one shirt, staying at whatever house accepts you, eating what is set before you? Is this really a sustainable pattern for one’s whole life? Did Jesus actually intend Christians to live this way? I would argue not…[Jesus] message was not meant to be a pattern for one’s whole life, but it was to serve as a school, a training ground, a boot camp in basic insecurity and trust. He was trying to present the values of a life of vulnerability in which one would have practical and needed experience of the same. It would be a life without baggage so one would learn how to accept others and their culture instead of always carrying along our own country’s assumptions and calling them “the good news.” He did not teach us to hang up a shingle and try to get people to attend our services, but exactly the opposite, that we should stay in their homes and eat their food! This is very strong institutional language. One can only imagine how different history would have been had Christians done this boot camp training. We might have borne a message of cosmic sympathy instead of cultural and military imperialism, dressing ourselves down instead of dressing ourselves up for worship services, providing humble reconciliation, instead of religious wars and the murdering of heretics, Jews, and native peoples in the name of Jesus. We learn slowly, but fortunately God seems very patient. Maybe God has gone through his own boot camp, since God hardly ever gets his own way. God must be very familiar with letting go, since God’s creatures insist on being in control and important.”
I see it all over the world, people want to be just like America! Many contacts have cried out for the cheque we supposedly are bringing with us as we go to them. We’ll I’m sorry, but World Racers don’t have money. We bring our hands, our feet, and our hearts.There are many missionaries who go out with cash and they give financially freely. Well, that brings a dependence that is unrealistic. When the money runs out, then what?
And here’s the harder truth…many contacts I have met also are ready to dive in. The arrange impromtu meetings with leaders miles away just to organize a schedule to maximize our time together. They KNOW we only bring ourselves and our hearts. They KNOW we are there to serve with everything. So then why do we shy away when we’re tired? Why do we wish we could be home when eternal things are happening right in front of us? When they open up a place to stay and offer us food that is not “american” to give and we shy away because it’s not pizza or nice looking pork chops? Why is eating rice 2 days in a row torture for so many of us?
What are we doing here then? If we want to be comfortable, then stay home! Like Rohr says, we don’t go to bring America to the world, we go to the world to bring the Kingdom of God. Our lives have nothing to do with us. We can be missional all we want and God won’t weigh that over anything else. Are we living for him by choosing to press into Christ moment by moment? Are we traveling to the nations to collect passport stamps? Are we on this journey to get a pat on the back? This trip is about learning who we are in Christ in order to understand our role in the Kingdom! Even then God can do all things without us. He just wants us to receive His offering of Love in our lives and PRAISE Him for ALL that HE IS!
” My life is not about me. It is about God. It is about a willing participation in a larger mystery.”
– Richard Rohr
