Mission-field vs. Mission-ary

I recently found out that more people are interested in reading this blog than I had thought. I often feel discouraged when it seems that nobody is reading my random thoughts - that's why I haven't been posting a lot lately. I realized also, however that people can't be interested in reading my blog if there is nothing new there to read. Ergo, I am planning to write/post blogs more frequently... just in case you were wondering.

I don't know exactly why I've been thinking about this, but lately I've been pondering over mission trips I've been on and how much I love them. I love feeling like I am actually doing something for God and like God is really in whatever I am doing. I love that! And I love serving all those people as if they were Jesus and just loving them no matter how dirty, mean, or strange they are. Just thinking of how fun and fulfilling mission trips really are makes me want to go on mission trips for the rest of my life!

I recently attended a Torrey conference where Jill Briscoe, one of the speakers, said something that made me think. She said, "You are either a mission-field or a mission-ary." Well, if that's so, then I am no longer part of that mission-field but am a missionary with a message to share. And if I am a missionary right now, I don't need to go on a mission trip to feel like I'm doing something for God.

When I went on Mexico Mission trips with my school, I did a lot of dirty and disgusting jobs like cleaning toilets, mopping soup kitchen floors, pouring Kool-Aid powder (that got all over the place), taking out smelly trash... and I actually loved it. I LOVED doing those dirty jobs and I worked hard at them because I knew I was serving the Lord as I did them.

But who says I can't do that where I am now? I'm pretty sure that no one would object if I wanted to clean toilets or take out the trash... but I hate doing those things! At least, I really don't like doing those things here. And yet, I loved being assigned those dirty jobs while at the mission! If I loved it there, but hate it here and the only difference is that I was doing it for God at the mission, why can't I simply do dirty jobs for God right here? Or what about the normal every-day things I do? Can't I just do them as if I am serving the Lord? Like writing papers. Why can't I write a paper as if it was for Jesus? Or relate lovingly with the outcasts and just plain weird people as if they were Jesus themselves?

I guess what I'm saying is that I don't need to be anywhere else to feel like I am doing something for God. I just need to do everything I do for God - as if I were on a mission trip. Always. That means that everything I do, see, speak, think, write, etc. should be for Jesus. Anything else is meaningless.