Day 9: Airport Reflection

or: what is the meaning of life?
 

 As we drove into Querétaro, Chris and I were discussing the nature of mission trips. Appropriately, as we sit in the airport, preparing to fly out of Querétaro, my mind is on the same thing.

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.