When I was 13 years old, some missionaries from the Compassion International Center in Kenya came to my church and told us everything that they did within the center. I remember sitting there and thinking to myself, “I will never be brave enough to tell people about Jesus.” I decided then and there that I would never become a missionary.
The word “missionary” terrified me, if you ask anyone that I grew up in the youth group with, they would know that that is something I refused to think about as a possibility over and over again. Little did I know that my heart turned towards poverty, human trafficking, and the hope of Jesus would turn into passion. Over the course of high school, I continued to refuse to even think about the word missionary, and thought I desired to become a CEO of a company and get to run a business. (Honestly, I would still love to do that). Over and over again, I felt that I was called into ministry, but discarded it and decided that I wanted to do something else with my life. It wasn’t until the fall of my senior year, my pastor was preaching a normal Sunday sermon, asked a question at the end, and I ended up writing an answer to it. The answer: “I am called to long-term missions.” I sat there, confused, not fully understanding what “long-term missions” meant, and didn’t fully understand it until I went to college. I turned to my mentor of many years, and showed her what I had written down. She smiled at me, and affirmed that she had seen that in me for many years. Gotta say, I was NOT expecting for that to be her reaction, but it put me at ease. The Father continued to put my life puzzle pieces together, when I wanted to major in Christian Ministry at my school, but my dad fought for International Business and I changed it to that. However, when I came to tour the school and register for classes, and met with my advisor who was NOT in my department, God changed up my life path. When I told her I wanted to minor in Christian Studies, she got so extremely excited and pulled out a degree plan that was a mix of Christian Studies and Business. It was literally created for people who want to use business on the mission field. I cried afterwards, and still think about that moment to this day. I am still studying within that major to do long-term missions. I actually am getting to live as a short-term missionary this summer in North Macedonia, and getting to be fully exposed for the first time how to have intercultural conversations and truly meeting people where they are with the Gospel. (I praise Jesus everyday for this opportunity). One of the goals that the Holy Spirit has been slowly revealing to me is to open up a fair trade fabric business somewhere internationally, to help slow down human trafficking and poverty in that are. I desire deeply for people to have the hope of Jesus Christ, and for spiritual needs to be met with the physical. I don’t share this with you guys so I can boast about how Christian I am and that I love Jesus more than everyone else because of this. However, I share this with you for a couple of different reasons:
1. Anyone can be called to the mission field. I literally rejected the idea for years and still don’t feel like I measure up to the job.
2. We are all called to be missionaries, but that doesn’t mean we all have to go on mission trips.
3. God will put the puzzle pieces of your life together for you, but you have to trust the process of Him slowly piecing them together.
As many of us know, The Great Commission in Matthew 28 19-20, tells us to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.” That go is so important, and is not as vast as we think. We often think that the only way we are able to share the Gospel is with people from different countries, but that is not true. (I know, ironic coming from the girl wanting to do missions overseas)
My sisters in Christ, I beg you to understand there are so many people around you that you yearn for the touch of Jesus. In Luke 8, starting in verse 40, Jesus is welcomed by a crowd who presses in on him as he is on his way to heal a centurion’s dying daughter. As the crowd continued to close in on Jesus, a woman who had suffered with bleeding for twelve, grabbed onto his cloak and was immediately healed. He looks at her in verse 49 and tells her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.”
I tell you this story because it shows that even the slightest touch of Jesus’ cloak will heal. However, people need to be told that they can reach out to the cloak of Jesus. There are many people out there hurting, and just need to be heard and loved. We are told over and over again in the New Testament that we are to look like Christ and become more like him. (Ephesians 5:1-2, 2 Corinthians 5: 17-20, 1 John 3:2-3).
How do we look like Christ? Look at the four Gospels and look at how Jesus loved people and lived his life. Jesus sought after the outcast (which literally killed your social status in Jewish life), he discipled the tax collector, loved the Samaritan, fought for righteousness, sat with the poor, and had compassion on everyone he met. In order to share the Gospel, we must look like Christ. We have to put on our listening ears and listen to the stories of others, and love them well.
Jesus’ agenda was never to win people over to himself, but rather to love everyone he encountered well and wholly. Someone rejecting the Gospel when we share it with them is not the end of us and not the end of a relationship, it is rather a “not yet” on their end. So, I’ll end this with saying: you don’t have to go overseas to be a missionary, anyone can be called to missions, everyone is in need of the Gospel, and for people to know Jesus they must be able to meet Jesus.
-MH
Reflection Questions
Have you ever desired to share Jesus with someone? Did you do it? If you decided not to, what held you back from sharing with them?
How can we put on the character of Christ so that people are able to meet Christ through us? (As in, we may be the only example of Jesus that someone gets)
How can you go out of your way this week to sit with an unbeliever and listen to them about their life and befriend them?
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