It’s 6:00 am on Monday morning. Our whirl-wind schedule begins on Tuesday. It’s been so nice to have a couple of days to adjust and recover from travel before our intense show schedule starts.
We spent all day yesterday (Sunday) doing church, then celebrating Thanksgiving with vocational missionaries from all over the world. Ha. Missionary. Don’t let that word fool you. Forget about all the stereotypes of what you think of when you hear that word. These guys are doctors, teachers, community leaders, pastors, and business people. They’re amazing.
Most people need their perceptions of what it means to be a “missionary” totally shattered. And “most people” likely includes you.
You want to be a teacher? I have a new question for you: Where?
I know that your natural reaction is to immediately dismiss that concept. But don’t. Seriously. Do you really think you were gifted with the talents you have, and that the desires of your heart were put there just so you could do it in the same country you grew up in? Maybe. It’s possible. But really??
You want to be a business man? Okay, where? My friend, (who needs to remain nameless), lived in the middle east for 8 years as a business man. Then he got kicked out, and now lives in Thailand. He does project management for an international ministry, and one of his many jobs is doing consulting for an organization called Nightlight. This past weekend, he helped oversee the process of covertly helping a lady in the sex-trafficking business escape her owner because she wanted out. Now they’re helping her get back to her home country and start a new life. Turns out, that’s something she’ll actually be able to do, because along the way, she decided to follow Christ. Why? Because my friend isn’t just a business man. He happens to be a missionary. Something you maybe haven’t considered being, or if you did, decided you didn’t want to be. But chances are pretty good, he has cooler stories than you do. Because it turns out, being a missionary is pretty cool after all.
You want to be a musician? Cool. Where? I know of a guy who just moved to Paris and gets to live in an amazing flat over looking the city. He hangs out with local artists all day, building relationships and teaching music classes. How amazing is that?? He’s an artist. And he’s a “missionary.”
It doesn’t matter what you want to do with your life. Whatever it is, your story may have been written with a country other than America in mind. It doesn’t take much international travel to recognize the intense need for people to serve internationally. The need is overwhelming. That means that the issue is not that God isn’t asking people to go. It’s that they just aren’t listening.
Don’t make assumptions and settle, just because it’s what is easy and convenient. Why settle for the fake version of the life you were really meant to live? What is it that you really want to do? It doesn’t matter what the answer is. Go ahead. Get crazy. Use your imaginations, and let loose…
I want to be a ___________.
Ahh, so that’s what you want to do with your life. That’s awesome! Next question: Where?
Tags: christian entertainer, Christian Illusionist, christian music, Harris, harris iii, illusionist, missionary, missions
Great post. But, of course, the flip side is, you don’t even have to travel to be a missionary. Most people know plenty of people in their own home town, who need to experience God’s love. They might even be as close as their own family, street or workplace!
The truth is the word missionary is used to confuse people into thinking you need to be super-spiritual or an expert in theology in order to share the Gospel. You don’t. That is why I know of one church that has sent out lots of missionaries. But has stopped using the word ‘missionary’, because everyone in the church is a missionary.
Shane – Absolutely! If everyone loved their own neighbor in their own town, the world would be a better place. Like you, I wish the word missionary was something everyone accurately understood, including the fact that it’s something everyone in the church is/should already be! I love how the church you’re referring to stopped using the word…whatever it takes to help people remove the hurdles and go do and be what they’re called to.
Thanks for the comments…I couldn’t agree more!