This is my struggle, I love European culture, I want to do missions over seas but I am worried that I am romanticizing it in my mind. Maybe I should be content to stay in the states and be used by God here. This class has really messed with my mind. I have been put into a context that I understand well in America and I am sure that God could use me here. The United States is one of the most desperate parts of the world in terms of lacking a working view of the church, besides we as a nation are very un-churched and need devoted followers of Christ right here. I guess my struggle is; how do I really know if I am called to stay right here or to move to Denmark or Germany? I suppose I need to open my heart, to allow the Holy Spirit to inhabit my life and direct me. Discernment will be vital and I guess I have to prepare myself for whatever God has for me whether that means I move to Europe and do missions there or start a para-church organization here in Spokane. God will call me wherever he wants; I think my job for now is to live incarnationally in my own context, as an RA here at Whitworth, to extend Shalom into the lives of the people around me, to settle down and do life with the people within my immediate context.
Jeremy
Rob- Yes, I would love that.
I know exactly what you mean. I’ve felt called to Africa for a while but now I’m not so sure. I don’t know but it seems that right now there is more of a lack of missionaries in the US and Europe than there are in Africa. So would it be more beneficial to the growth of God’s kingdom to be in one of those places? I don’t know but I sure am praying about it a lot more now than I have in quite a while.
Ditto.
Jeremy – we should have a coffee. Wanna?
*in my first sentence, I meant to say “God has a way of making you do the things He wants you to do, whether you want to or not”
I have found that God has a way of making you do the things He wants you to do, whether He wants you to or not. That doesn’t mean you can just sit back and not do anything, thinking He will do it all for you, but it does mean you don’t have to worry. He has a plan for you, and whether it means staying here or going somewhere else, you can know you’re in the right place, because if you weren’t, then God would move you.
I know you know all that already, and what I said just sounds like a nice churchy easy answer, but it really is true. It’s not about what we want for our lives, its about what God is going to do with our lives.
There is great need for mission both here in the US as well as Europe(and many other places!). You’d do well to pursue either, just be open to your plans being changed, God has a great ability to waylay what we think are great plans.
I have perhaps the opposite problem. What if I want to stay here? But what if God doesn’t want me to stay here? I keep finding ways to justify my desires to stay in the states, yet I constantly find tension because I am so restless here as well. I understand all of this, but sort of in a converse way.