On a Mission

Ever since I first approached the Global Missions team at church about using the missions internship for this trip to Honduras, I’ve had this feeling of being kind of a poser. I’ve felt that way because people keep asking me if I’m taking this trip because I’m thinking about being a missionary in the future, or even assuming that that’s the case. I’ve really felt guilty about saying that those are not my plans. Now I’ve learned that God’s plans aren’t always on the same page as my own plans and that His generally trump mine, but I still answer that question by saying that I don’t have plans to be a “missionary” long term in the future.

However, after I was yet again asked the same question the other day, I got to thinking about my answer and what being a “missionary” really means. And I think I’ve changed my mind. I think we’re all missionaries, but not in the connotation under which I had originally put the word. When I’ve thought of a missionary, the image that has always come to my head has been one of a really brave, independent, young-ish person who ventures off into some unknown country, the “mission field,” where he or she doesn’t know or understand the language or culture and proceeds to assimilate him- or herself with the people there, develop relationships with them, and share Christ’s love through word and action. I wouldn’t say that describes me or my preferred scene very well, and if that’s the definition of a missionary I would definitely not put myself in that category, especially not long term. But once I got to thinking about it, I realized that that is a ridiculously narrow description of a missionary.

The reality is that, whether we like it or not, every Christian is called to be a missionary. The only difference is the “field” in which we serve. You may not be called to drop everything and move to Antarctica where you have to build a hut out of ice cubes and eat whale blubber and convert all the Eskimos, but that doesn’t mean you won’t be called to serve in some other way. You might find that God opens doors for you to minister to the homeless in your own city. Maybe your mission field will be at PTO meetings at your child’s school or in the conference room in your office. Or maybe you are the best person to be an example of Christian living to the people right in your own home. No place is too small or too close to home to be a mission field. I am totally convinced that God can use anyone, at any age, in any place. I have friends my age and younger whose desire to serve God and whose ingenuity in finding ways to do so inspires me, and on the other end of the spectrum, I love and admire that my Grandma at 80 years old still has a huge heart for all sorts of missions and always has a contagious excitement when I tell her about the mission work I’m involved in. God doesn’t have rules or boundaries that limit Him to using a certain kind of person to accomplish His purposes. I guess that what I’m really trying to say is that God won’t fit in the box I had put Him in, and I’m unusually pleased to find out that I’ve been wrong.

You never know where you’ll end up, and I doubt God will ever stop reminding me of that. My prayer is that He will always be able to use me to help build His kingdom and that I won’t ever neglect to show His love in whatever mission field I’m called into. That might mean that I never leave the country again. Or maybe I’ll end up in Antarctica. I wouldn’t mind having a pet penguin.