As a missionary I travel quite a bit and looking at the past year, the traveling has increased dramatically. Plus looking at the calendar for the next two years, this is not going to slow down. God has big plans to use us to impact the kingdom of heaven and part of those plans require traveling all over the globe.
"...And where would I be
Without You...
I'd be packin' my bags when I need to stay
I'd be chasin' every breeze that blows my way
I'd be building my kingdom just to watch it fade away
It's true
That's me without You..."
Every time I hear this song I realize how much it is God that I am living the way I am. My husband and I travel a lot, as I've mentioned, and we love it. We love making the memories together, impacting the nations, stoping at local restaurants, and visiting historic sites 'along' our routes. We don't enjoy living out of a suitcase, the stress it has on our bodies, and the cost, though these things are greatly outweighed by the pros, as you can call them.
However, if I was living for myself I would not be traveling like this. Every time I hear this song on the radio I'm reminded that I was content staying in my hometown for the rest of my life. Perhaps even living with my mom until I married, hopefully even staying nearby once I did move out. I naturally do not like change. Traveling has always been appealing to me, though from a perspective of going on weekend trips occasionally and maybe twice a year leaving for a week or two, to return to MY home, MY town, MY COMFORT. And if I had chosen my comfort, over Gods will for my life, I would have been unfit for the kingdom of God.
Let me explain through scripture;
Luke 9:57-62
"57 As they were going along the road, someone said to Him, “I will follow You wherever You go.” 58 And Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” 59 And He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.” 60 But He said to him, “Allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God.” 61 Another also said, “I will follow You, Lord; but first permit me to say good-bye to those at home.” 62 But Jesus said to him, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
First Jesus points out that 'wherever' He goes may not be comfortable; that following Him can mean not having a place of our own. To understand Jesus' response from the second man you have to know that Jews bury the dead the day of, therefor it is extremely unlikely that he would be there if his father was already dead. He was saying that he would follow Jesus after his father, who was probably elderly, died, but not till then. For the third man, when looking at original text, you come to understand that he did not want to be 'all in'; he did not want to leave his friends and family. Jesus wants us to be dedicated to following Him, anyone who's heart is not in the task will be distrated and unfruitful.
I choose to follow Jesus now, not later when it is more convenient, giving Him my all, willing to leave my family and friends, knowing that I may not be comfortable and I may not have a place of my own.
I choose to answer Jesus' call because I know that there are people out there who do not know His name. And I do not see how I could choose my comfort over their souls. Everyone has the opportunity to be in a relationship with God and they need to know this! God asked me to give up my comforts to help accomplish this.
I ask you, are you answering Gods call on your life to spread His name?
The beauty of it is that the 'missions field' can look radically different between people. God calls us to live missionaly, to live our live with bringing Him glory as our driving factor. Some of us need to give things up while others need to pursue their desires.
We flew into Boston yesterday to run a training. I'm currently getting over a really bad cold, recently returned from our trip to Brazil, just moved out of the rv and into a house ....what I want to be doing is settling into out new place, taking it easy and getting better. But this is what God has called me to do and I am GLAD to be here.
