This 11 month journey will no doubt afford me many opportunities to serve rather than be served, to share and teach the Gospel, but also the opportunity to learn and live out the Gospel. I go to serve others and tangibly show them the love of Christ with the knowledge that while doing this I will grow in understanding of God's love. The missions paradox as I like to call it.
So as I sit on a 14 hour flight, my first of many long transportation rides to come, I realize something. If you haven't been on long plane rides before they can be tricky how they prepare your body. With all the windows closed, the cabin lights turned off it gives the appearance of night time making your body tired. I wake up from a short nap to realize its only 6:00 pm. Why am I tired? It's because they have trained my body for the different time zone we will be in upon landing. They do this to help your body get tuned to the new time.
As I sit and think about this I think we can train our bodies too through discipline to grow. Don't get me wrong this year is about serving others and teaching them about Jesus, but it's also about training and disciplining my body, my life to grow in its biggest calling: to rest in my identity as a child of God, to grow in His image and likeness as He created us to do, and know all we have to do to be loved is to be His. This year will transform my life and help me grow more into what God has created me to be. As a team leader I will challenge my team into this calling and the good news is I will challenge you also. My prayers is that as one of my blog readers I share how I'm growing into that calling, but I also challenge you to grow into that calling. It's not an 11 month mission trip that makes you grow, it's a willingness to choose God, a radical obedience, complete dependence, full surrender, and a daring faith that allows you to grow into that calling.
So here we go, the journey begins. The plane has landed safely and it's time to say yes to God. Today the adventure begins to grow in His calling to us all. Come on this journey with me by clicking update alerts on the left and entering your email. Let's train and discipline ourselves to desire less of us and more of God.
