The problem.

Many of our friends here and in our day-to-day lives have experienced this. It can be summarized in an offhand comment from one of my (Grace’s) Jesus-brothers the other week. He said, “On mission trips and stuff we always do stuff for Jesus, but when we get home I never know what to do. It’s harder when you have life to do.”

Very eloquent, I know, but he’s right. Guided mission is a lot easier to commit to than living that life back home. I’m currently riding the high of a mission/disaster relief trip to North Carolina myself. Probably why this is on my mind and heart so much right now. I suppose ‘high’ isn’t the right word. If you’ve been on a mission trip, or even a church retreat, you probably know what I mean. There’s a sobering aspect to it, a closeness to God. It’s like life snaps into sharp clarity and all of your priorities are wrenched into place for one fleeting week or two…

Until life takes back over.

That last bit is frustrating, disappointing, and honestly, it feels stupid. The norm for our family all over the world is endless persecution, and we sit in our living rooms in our bubbles. There’s a sense of guilt to it, isn’t there? I think we’re right to feel some measure of guilt, so long as we use it to bring change. That’s what MYCRO is all about, after all. 

So, what’s at the heart of the issue? Is it a lack of consistency? The church’s fault, because they don’t expect enough of us? Is it simply a lack of faith? I would venture to say none of those are true. Undoubtedly, a piece of them may be, but they are not the main concern. I believe the biggest reason activity falls off after mission work is simply this. We don’t know where to start back home. So then, if that’s the issue, how do we fix it?

The fix.

Nike might not be the best, but their motto hit the nail on the head: Just Do It. Seriously. Make cookies and pass them out and say ‘God loves you’ as you do, or give sandwiches out to the people you see on the street corners. Hand out flyers to church events in your neighborhood. Write good quotes or bits of encouragement on cards and leave them places you think people will find them. Ask one person one deep question. Nobody cares if it’s cheesy, or awkward, or if you screw it up.

The fact is, God’s instruction to us is clear in the Great Commission: “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” We don’t have to feel anything to do what God has clearly instructed us to do. When we simply try, I have full faith that He will be faithful to use it to His glory, no matter how ‘weird’ it feels for us. Plus, aren’t you sick of comfort? 

I can prove it works, too, with an example from us authors’ own lives. When we got home from our mission trip to the Appalachia region (App-ah-LAH-cha, not App-a-LAY-sha, get it right), we were desperate to keep ourselves from slipping back into the apathy of our daily lives. We egged each other on, and eventually one of us proposed the idea: “Why don’t we just do the soda ministry thing we did on the trip?”

It was that simple. I had some extra soda, there were blank signs in the barn (our youth group meeting spot is a barn, and it is so sick) for us to decorate, and we dragged our moms with us to function as the two adults we had to bring for it to count as a church activity. We walked from the barn to a random intersection, held up our “Free Soda” signs, and when cars stopped at the red light, we offered free refreshment along with the option of a quick prayer. Let me tell you, people in Appalachia are way nicer than where we live, but we still got a few people. 

The rest of the story.

The story doesn’t end there. We kept doing it on and off through that winter, and the amount of people who rolled their windows down for us grew less and less. We tried to make it as clear as possible that we weren’t selling soda, we just wanted to make a couple people’s days a little better, but it didn’t seem to be working. Most of the time we were met with blank stares or complete ignorance. (Ignoring? Ignorance? You know what I mean.)

By the time spring came, we were properly discouraged. However, we decided to do it one last time. Our prayer was this: “God, please, just let us talk to one person today. If we can touch one person’s life, even in the smallest way, it’ll be worth it.” Talk about faith the size of a mustard seed! But God provided. Right when we were about to leave, one man said ‘yes’ to our offhanded question of ‘Hey, do you have anything you want us to pray about for you while we’re here?’.

To our surprise, he not only gave us a prayer request, but pulled into the nearby 7-11 to talk to us! He ended up sharing a solid chunk of his life story and what he was going through at that moment, and we were able to lay hands on him and pray over him for a solid several minutes. We never saw him again, but I do know we were all greatly encouraged by the Holy Spirit there. That’s all it takes, I promise. Just step out. Just try. Even though it may start small, the Bible promises that those who are faithful with little will be given much. Just start, and let God do the rest.

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

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