Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Old Men in Smalltowns with Bad Breath; Pt. 2

During a recent quiet time with God I began questioning my current circumstances. Not in a griping or complaining “why me” manner, but rather am I doing what God has called me to do? About a month and a half ago I began a new job that during that whole pre-job process looked like a complete answer to prayers. Along with that it seemed to be an opportunity that looked to move me into the next stage of my life. However, as I said I’m now a month and a half in and wondering what is it I’m doing here? How am I making a difference for God’s kingdom? Sure I may be a half way friendly face who is helpful and encouraging to those I am in contact with for a brief moment. But in reality I’ll never see them again and how is that keeping souls out of hell?

God has given me a passion for missions and yet I feel like my occupation isn’t doing that, at least not blatantly. The reality of the situation is that I might not be blatantly keeping souls out of hell, but I am representing God’s love (or at least trying to) and God is developing patience in me, which is a much needed tool for future missions endeavors. So many times I’ve been told of the importance of wisdom in anything, and wisdom isn’t something that’s inherited overnight, it’s gained over time. Which is again frustrating and demands patience. Also, I work with many lost folks who I pray might see a glimpse of Jesus’ love in me.

Often through my impatience (there’s that word again in some form) I want to be the missionary now and forget what true missions’ looks like. Every one of us is called to missions if we know and have accepted Jesus as our personal savior. We’re called to be like him and what did he do but live a life devoted to loving and spreading God’s love. We can do that anywhere whether it’s in a hut in Tanzania, a bus stop in Ireland, or our Lake County Circuit court branch in Mundelein. That’s what true missions looks like.

3 comments:

Happy said...

There's a lot of truth in that, Josh. I, too, wrestle quite a bit with the seeming contrast between what I'm doing now (tho I'm sure it's God's will for me at the moment) and what I want to be doing eventually(and think God has called me to) - but you're right: "missions" is simply being the light of Christ to a dying world where you are, and we're all called to that.

Kind of takes the celebrity status off "missionaries," doesn't it? :) Phew. That's a relief. :)

Josh said...

yeah that's actually bringing up a good point. if you think about it, do you really hear about missionaries anymore. i mean we know about the missionaries of the past who are famous enough to make it in a book called from jerusalem to irian jaya but do we ever hear stories about present day missionaries and what they go through? i would be willing to bet that a lot of them deal with the same stuff only in a different context.

Happy said...

also a good point. I'll post the link on the side bar, but a GREAT reference tool for anyone who's interested in modern missions at all is the website for Mission Network News.