“Live your life as a missions trip.” – Reggie McNeal

I love that quote! It rings of truth. I really aspire to live my life with that focus.

I have always been fascinated by the impact of people leaving to go somewhere else on mission. Over the years I have taken hundreds of people around the world on short-term trips. I have taken people to Europe, Russia, the Dominican Republic, and Mexico to name a few of those short trips.

It takes quite a bit to get a group mobilized to go anywhere, but it is especially challenging to get people en masse out of the country. There is the need to raise funds. There should be training in cultural sensitivities and competencies. There is the need to secure a Passport, and if traveling to developing countries, often, there are medical concerns as well.

All that to say, it can be a colossal task to get people “on mission.” The pay off is immeasurable though. I know, there are down sides to short-term trips, but I have found the impact on a sojourner’s soul and approach to life can be dramatic…if, only in some cases, a short time.

Here is how I have seen it working: A group prepares to go by attending to all I have listed above and more. They get on a plane, cross a body of water, get off the plane and live life at a level of faith engagement that they had not ever experienced before. They are focused, passionate, servant-like (most the time) and deeply concerned about others well being. Heck, I even see super “cool” people singing worship songs out loud IN PUBLIC. WHAT? It is breath taking at times to see folks who are timid or selfish or distracted be miraculously converted to living life on a different plain. Why? How? The only measurable difference is they have committed themselves to mission. When home, their concerns of sustenance, entertainment, finding a mate, acquisition, and a host of other concerns are like valium sedating the adventurous alternative out of them, but in that unique window of life, they see and live into a different orientation.

The problem is, they get back on the plane, fly back over the body of water and re-enter the life of being an American.

“When all of life becomes a mission trip, you are a pilgrim on life’s greatest journey.” Len Sweet

I think that is part of the answer to living life above the line of sedation and comfort and self-absorption. In a way, it is a change of mind.

How do we see our journey, in the rhythms of life in now? Is it as a regular American or as a missionary that God has sent…to where you live?

Why not begin to re-envision who you are as a missionary, how instead of going somewhere else, stays, but acts like you do when you go?

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