Missionaries to me are those who plant themselves in a country that is not their own for an extended period of time to make that place home. It’s a foreign place that becomes a familiar place, and it’s an area where relationships are built that will last for more than 3 days. Missionaries are people who are willing to abandon what is normal so that they can follow a calling that is socially unacceptable to most. They’ve typically sacrificed everything they call commonplace and exchange it for a different story. Pastor Ryan
I have always avoided anything mission. Not having a bit of gypsy blood, nothing about packing my undees and hitting the road, holds any interest for me. Even in the early days...and later days of going to church, if it had to do with missions or missionaries, I was gone both in mind and body.
Much later on, the definition of what a missionary looked like changed. It now included those who didn't go into the tropics or even staying in the states, you could be a missionary in your own town, and sleep in your own bed at night. I couldn't wait to sign up and do my time. Now I could get my missionary badge and mark it off the To Do To Get To Heaven checklist!
I have been very comfortable with my perspective. All fit nice and tidy in my little God box. Pastor Ryan's comment unnerved me last week. Why? - because I think he might be right. I don't like anything foreign. Let me say if I had been born in France or Ethiopia or Spain, I would have felt the same way.
Do we have to be in unfamiliar, uncomfortable circumstances to be all we can be? While I am not sure, I want to be open to the possibility that I may be wrong. I want to color outside the lines but in my own way. How many of us will allow the idea of being uncomfortable on purpose when we are uncomfortable enough involuntarily in this life.
Reading this made me uncomfortable.
I don't like being uncomfortable.
Do I stay or do I go?
For me, I am going to work through it. As much as I would like to deny or run away from being uncomfortable, I am going to play through. Not sure what it will look like on the other side and while there is the desire to run away as fast as I can, I won't. At least not today...
