I’ve found that – during any given mission trip – evangelism and
purposeful relationships comes far more naturally for me than at home. I cling
more passionately, more desperately to Christ. Encouragement flows from my lips
for those around me. Every person I encounter and interact with presents an
opportunity for ministry. Yet, when I get home, this clarity begins to fade and
I fall back into the daily distraction. I think the reason for this is (as
always) threefold:
1. We aren’t at home.2. We are here for a purpose.
3. We know time is limited.
Ah, it starts to make sense. And yet… something about those three
things doesn’t allow me to move on so quickly. In fact, rather than letting me
off the hook, those three explanations force a greater responsibility on us:
Our lives are, in essence, mission trips.
Let me ‘splain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up:
We aren’t
at home.
I feel pretty comfortable saying this is a recurring theme in the
Bible (Hebrews 13, 1 Peter 2, for example). The earth is not our home, our
citizenship is somewhere else. The discomfort of life on earth (sickness, battling
the flesh, death, Justin Bieber) is nothing more than culture shock.
We are
here for a purpose.
So, what’s the purpose of Life? One of my favorite passages in the
Bible is 2 Corinthians 5. Between that and the Great Commission, it seems pretty
clear that God has us here to proclaim his name.
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All
authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
and teaching them to obey
everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very
end of the age.”
Matthew 28:18-20
Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade others. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. If we are “out of our mind,” as some say, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
2 Corinthians 5:11-21
We know
time is limited.
Another recurring theme of the Bible (and life) is the brevity of
life. I’ll reference James 4 for this, but it’s everywhere. We’re only here for
a little while, and then we’re with God forever. Outreach is temporary, now is
the only time we have to do it. All that to say: though it is easier to live deliberately for the gospel while on a trip like this one, a change in perspective helps me undertand a bit better what we're actually doing here.