Are you changed? Really changed?
Did the trip that you took for that one week change your life? Is it still changing your life months or years later?
It did change you. It made you feel alive. It taught you about abandonment and selflessness and maybe even helped you see for the first time what really is important in life. It reestablished the belief that life, true life, is not found in things, but in relationships and in Christ. It is in giving ourselves away that we find ourselves. It is the way that we are created. And for one week, you were reminded of that truth. But how do you bring that home? How do you keep it going?
One of the biggest struggles with a short-term mission trip, is so often we don’t know how to transfer what we learned and experienced on our trip, back into our lives when we return home. We don’t know how to bottle it up and bring it back to our everyday lives.
But what if we did live every day like we were on a mission trip? What if we lived every day with intention?
You planned your trip for months. You packed bags, raised money and traveled to a new country to share the love of Christ and serve a family that you had never met before. For one week, you left your life, your job, your school, your spouse, your friends or your family behind to simply GO.
What if you lived with that same intentionality the rest of your life? What if you got up each day knowing that your main goal, regardless of the form in which it presents itself, (classroom, office, construction, etc.) was to work at whatever is set before you, with everything in you, sharing His love in the process? What if you were as aware of every action that you took, as you were when you were building that home; knowing that your example, whether good or bad, will be the example of Christ himself to those around you?
“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as if working for the Lord, not for men." Col 3:23
What if you woke up and went about your day with the same selfless purpose that you do on a mission trip? What if you put yourself aside and set out with others in mind, thinking of what you can give, rather than what you can receive?
“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves” Phil 2:3
What if you were as adamant about sharing what you have seen Christ do in your life daily, as when you were preparing for or returning home from your mission trip?
“We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ” 1 John 1:3
In Bob Goff’s book, Love Does, he says this...
Jesus’ disciples never said they were on a mission trip. I think they knew love already had a name and they didn’t need a program or anything else to define it. We don’t either. The kind of adventure Jesus has invited us on doesn’t require an application or prerequisites. It’s just about deciding to take up the offer made by a father who wants us to come.
We are offered this opportunity every day; to serve, to love, to give, to share Christ in the same way that we do on our mission trips. It doesn’t take an airplane or leaving your life behind to find it. It just takes a choice to live it.
Don’t let this be a trip that changes 4 days of your life. Let it be one that changes the next 40 years.
So, let me ask you again, “Are you changed?
Really changed?”
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