The motivation that will sustain us

When I was in college, an engineer shared something in a class I attended during missions emphasis week that has stuck with me. He talked about having the right motivation to go into missions. 

Here is what he shared, paraphrased:

There are many reasons why people may pursue a career in full time missions. I know I have identified with most of these during my journey.

• The lure of the exotic or desire to travel. 
• A feeling of guilt that we have more and thus are obligated to help out the rest of the world. 
• We have something they need and the means to give it to them.
• Obedience to God. This is my "calling" in life.
• They need to hear about Jesus.
• We have medical expertise that they need and are dying from the lack thereof. 

When looked at more closely, all of these reasons have flaws. Yes, even going out of obedience to God. 

The lure of the exotic/desire to travel will quickly fade, especially in the face of culture shock

The guilt we feel in having more than someone else will dissipate when we have things stolen from us

The importance of bringing a message to people will become frustrating when people reject the message we have.

Bringing medical expertise will not save everyone from death, and we may get highly discouraged at the pain and suffering that we cannot alleviate

Going out of sheer obedience to God, though that is a good thing, will lead to burnout if that is the only thing keeping us going. It may even mean a poor attitude prior to the burnout.

So what should be our motivation? 

1 Cor 10:31 So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. 

So our motivation to go to Congo to bring them better medical care or a better fuel or a closer community through a soccer ministry should be to bring God glory. And whether you as the reader of this blog are currently in school, taking care of kids, playing guitar, going to the office, or working in the field, you can have that same motivation- do it all for the glory of God. This will remain in the face of adversity, during culture shock, seeing patients die, and being rejected. Bringing glory to God is the motivation that can sustain us.

On Being Missionaries

It got real when we received our prayer magnets in the mail. "We are official missionaries now." I told Ryan. You know the pictures that stay up on your fridge or bulletin board or stuffed in your Bible... for years and years. We worked hard to make sure our picture was good, which was no small undertaking with a 3 month old. It felt like the 3 little bears- not too __, not too ___, but just right. She had to be awake, diaper changed, not sick (had just gotten over a cold), and dressed in a cute outfit but not yet spit upon. I wanted to be awake, not post-call, not on call, showered- ha! And Ryan, well he can be ready anytime. So the minute that looked like it would happen, we had to find someone to take the picture. We asked some friends if they were available. Unfortunately, they were running errands and were at the mall at the time. No matter, we went to them! Our official picture was taken at the mall with an iPhone. Now you know.

To be honest, I have mixed feelings about having the title of a missionary. I confess that one of the barriers I had when we were praying about making the jump from short term trips to long term missions was that I had a perception of missionaries when I was little was that some looked frumpy, some looked foreign, some looked out of date (possibly a result of being on our fridge for so many years!), and some of their kids looked awkward and acted shy. On the flip side... in Kenya I met some amazing doctors who gave up lucrative careers to be there, I wish I were half as cool as my cousins who grew up in Bolivia and are bilingual, and some of our best friends are working in videography and photography as official missionaries. Regardless of whether people see us as frumpy and our dear Sydney awkward, the goal is not to make much of ourselves, but to make Jesus famous.