Welcome to the mission field.
don’t remember getting an invite to be on the mission field, let me re-extend
it by reminding you of it. God
called you to the mission field the day you said, “I will follow.” It’s not a question of geography or
willingness or calling…it’s actually mandatory. You were designed to be a missionary and live missionaly. When you became His, your home address
changed. The world you live in is
no longer your home; the Kingdom of God is now where you reside. You are currently a foreigner, living a
mission to bring His Love and His Kingdom to this world.
I often
look at “missionaries” that are in foreign countries and think about the
trials, persecution, and hardship they endure. I look at my life in Kenya and think about how daily I’m
faced with poverty, oppression, and overwhelming needs. I want to run some days and go back to
the States. I want to trade the
suffering for a cush life back where I’m from.
But the
reality is, I’m a foreigner wherever I go and my calling remains the same. The
mission field in the States looks different than other places but the attacks faced
there are just as dangerous.
Comfort, materialism, individualism. These are dangerous insulators that keep us from our
mission.
We’re not
called to bunker underground and wait for Jesus. We’re called to be in the world…affecting culture, leading
politics, steering businesses, discipling others, loving prostitutes, walking
beside criminals, healing the sick.
And this will create tension because we’re integrated but set apart.
We need
to be in this tension. Engaged in
the world but living differently than it.
It’s hard to live there….we all know this, but that doesn’t mean we
run.
The
church wasn’t designed for your comfort.
It was never intended to be a place where you feel safe, can be with
people like yourself and insulate you from the realities of the world around
you. It was designed to be an
outpost where change comes from, where the Kingdom of God propagates from. So let’s take our calling seriously and
realize we’ve all been sent.
Welcome to the mission field!
