I kinda love being a missionary.
Sometimes it’s awkward to call myself a missionary, and other times, it’s downright illegal.
The reality remains: I love being a missionary.
I love the word “Missionary” and what it stands for.
Just as a “Library” is focused on liber, books
Just as a “Sanctuary” is focused on Sanctus, holiness
Just as an “Aviary” is focused on avis, birds
I am a missionary, focused on a mission.
How cool is it that my life description and my job description align so perfectly?
I think this is one of the things that makes life on the race so amazing sometimes and so tough other times, at least for me. I am serving as a missionary…one who is ‘about’ a mission. Some days, it’s been hard to see, practically, how to forward that goal or mission. How do I call myself a “missionary” when I end up just painting buildings or teaching English? These things can seem pretty irrelevant…lame, even (!), compared to what the name sounds like.
Is my mission painting?
Is my mission global domination of the English language?
Is my mission that children get tons of hugs? (maybe…this one’s not so bad!)
No? So why am I spending time with this?!
Because my mission is a pretty simple one, actually. Love God & love others. Usually loving looks like meeting practical needs: whether physical, mental, spiritual, emotional, etc. So I paint. I hug. I teach English. I pray. I share the gospel. I clean dishes.
I live with purpose…I have a focus.
I’ve loved being a missionary this month. I’ve loved that my mission is obvious and lines up so clearly with actions and words. I love that I get to be unashamedly about the business of a heavenly realm. I love that I’ve gotten to hug, to preach, to trek, to share the gospel, to lay hands for healing, to cast out devils, to visit orphans & widows. I love living with purpose and with mission.
Isn’t that something we all long for? To be totally “about” something? There’s an itch in all of us that seems to be scratched only when we can run forward with purpose and passion in something that really matters.
Praise God. I get to be a missionary!
