Missionary.
For me this used to conjur up images of little old people with grey hair, dressed in brown wrinkly stockings with brown knitted cardies giving a really long and incredibly boring slide show. (Crazy but in fact none of the missionaries I have ever met fitted this description - they are all awesome funky people with a fire in their belly and a passion for Jesus and the people they serve)
But lately my perspective is a little different. As you leave our church there is a sign above the door that has got my attention and started me thinking.
"You are now entering your missionfield."
Your missionfield. My missionfield. Does that mean that I am a missionary?
Now for those of you who know me, I would really hope you don't see me as the above desrciption of a missionary. (I don't have brown stockings, haven't worn a cardie since I was 12 and am reluctantly embracing the digital age.) Do you fit that description?
We are all missionaries. We are called to be salt to the world, making people thirsty for Jesus. As christians we carry something that the rest of the world needs whether it knows it or not. We don't have to go to a third world country or a diaster zone to do this. I am in no way discrediting overseas missions, just not all of us are called to serve in this way. But we are called to be missionaies in the place we find ourselves now. This may be our university, workplace, home, town or wherever.
Reaching out to those around us - it may be our family, friends, workmates, classmates, neighbours, or that random chick at the supermarket checkout. They may be broken in need of healing; lonely in need of a friend; hungry in need of a feed or lost in need of a direction. Whatever it is they are looking for, because we have Jesus, we have the answers that can satisfy them.
Matthew 28:18-20 – the great commission. Jesus basically told us to go to all the world and reach out to those around us. If you don't reach out in your world who will?
The ultimate example of a missionary is Jesus. He reached out to the misfits of society – prostitutes, murderers and thieves. (eg Woman at the well, Zaccheus in the tree, etc) Jesus quite literally was a radical – he didn’t conform to the bounds of society or focus on being seen as 'proper'. Instead he was a living example of the love of God. It says in the Bible ‘there is no greater love than to lay down ones life for another.” This doesn’t necessarily mean we have to physically die (although sometimes this can be the case) but to die to our own desires, wants, dreams or fears for the sake of another.
This could mean putting aside your own embarrassment to eat lunch with the school weirdo or instead of buying your usual latte on the way to work, put that money aside for a week and buy groceries for a hungry family.
I just want to challenge your perspective a little. Do you see yourself as a missionary? Are you reaching out to those around you, or is that up to someone else to take care of? Ask God to show you the outreach opportunities that surround and take a leap of faith and act. You never know what will happen!
(And when you do let us know what happens! We would love to hear your experiences!)
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