A couple summers ago i went to honduras and stayed with a missionary and his family for a month or so. (he was a fellow aggie, so i knew he must truly be doing the Lord’s work…haha) anyway, we were talking one night about missions and that during the summer several church groups from back in the States come and work with him for a couple weeks (he is an architect by the way, so his work is primarily through providing building solutions for local people and then developing those relationships).
we discussed the idea of a “mission trip” and how maybe it needed to undergo a name change. there are all sorts of things to think about when looking at the mindset of a mission trip and the care we must take to not elevate ourselves… examples: we are the “good americans” coming to help the poor little [fill in the blank of the people group] (why do we christians still identify ourselves with a nation?); we are more “blessed” and need to bestow “blessings” upon others (bringing up the question of what exactly is a “blessing”?); we are the teachers and those we help are the learners (i usually find myself the ignorant one). such thoughts have no place in service and love (though sadly my brain often tells me so).
so, the “mission trip”… for people who have grown up in the church and are used to the terms and phrases we liberally toss around like beads on Mardi Gras (we are “born again” and “saved” and we have a “quiet time” in our “walk,” etc etc etc), these ideas lose their spirit and flavor (something about salt maybe…?). we are so comfortable with these ideas–ideas that should be seen as truly revolutionary–that they become routine…safe…sanitized.
…(sanitizing brings up a whole new can of worms…but for another time)…
ok, well, what would be a better way to describe it? mark liked the idea of a “movement trip.” it makes sense too, because if nothing else, a mission trip is all about motion. at the most basic, you physically move from your home to another place. but we also move relationally to new people; people in need of hope, truth, and love. we are in motion spiritually as we remove from ourselves comforts, false gods, and blind allegiances and begin to move into a more intimate relationship with the Creator. our emotions and psyche are in motion as well, as we gain a greater understanding not just of ourselves but also empathy with people suffering from both a spiritual and physical want.
there are so many levels of motion in our lives…maybe a pilgrimage is the best representation of that movement. we always move; always away from X and towards Y, or towards X and away from Y. Places. People. Ideas. God.
…towards Him…away from Him…
there is no middle ground.
kierkegaard writes “the matter stands thus: if a person avoids choosing, this is the same as the presumption of choosing the world.”
god or mammon.
true love or self-love.
peace or war.
nonviolence or violence.
life or death.
.movement.
let us follow that middle-eastern hobo, the homeless Son of God, who spoke “the subversive witness of the Beatitudes, which have turned everything upside down.”
let us move towards him.
