The life of a missionary is just like taking a shower. Much like all shower thoughts, this statement requires a little bit of an explanation to make much sense. The shower at my apartment for the next two months is cold at best, and to really take a good shower you just have to jump into the water. Being a missionary follows the same prinicple, you only get the full experience if you jump right into it. I’ve learned that the field isn’t a place where you can just give it half of your attention or effort; it really requires you to give it your all, or else you are just going to feel dissatisfied and like you are not doing anything.
For me, jumping all the way in has looked like walking in what the Lord is giving me. One of the things that Lord has placed on my heart is a desire to really dig into scripture, and not just to read it but to tear it up, study it, discover the background behind it, find the meanings of influential words in Hebrew or Greek, and even memorizing large chunks of it. I went from just reading a chapter of a book in a day, to reading a chapter from two books, listening to a podcast over one of those chapters, and then just studying whatever else has captured my interest during that section of time. I’m really starting to see the ways that scripture really backs up everything, as well as finding out that some verses are taken way out of context and to really find out what they look like for me personally.
Something that has really caught my eye lately is this idea of being no judgment in the Church, which is a totally wrong way to think. The reality is that we are actually called to jude one another, at least in the context of the Church. We still aren’t meant to judge those outside the Church, but our brothers and sisters are the ones that we should be more concerned about. People like to quote Matthew 7 as a chapter that is all about not judging, and to an extent that is true. What the chapter is really saying is that we are not meant to judge hypocritically, if we are to judge one another we have to be held to that same standard. In a lot of Paul’s letters calling out our brothers and sisters is a big theme, and that is still as it should be today. Being a righteous judge to my brothers and sisters is something that I’m really becoming passionate for; mostly because the Lord has given me the ability to see things as it should be, and all I have to do is step out in that and speak the truth that the Lord has given me.
In the end, just diving headlong into the water without hesitation is the best thing that I’m learning to do, whether it be in the shower or just living life in community. If you don’t give it everything you have been gifted with, then all you are really doing is shooting everyone in the foot. I’m really learning that if I don’t use all the gifts that I’ve been blesses with in my community, then all that is happening is that I am stunting the growth of me and five other people. So this is a calling to myself and anyone else that reads this to just jump into the water, the worst thing that could happen is that you’re cold for a couple of seconds!
