#51: The Next Right Thing

My friend Casey is really good with one-liners. Not the overly clever or boisterous or dirty kind of one-liners, but rather the ones that stick with you and make you think a bit. One of his lines goes something like, “You don’t always have to save the world right away. You just have to do the next right thing.”

Okay, Casey tells me that this line actually came from another ministry, but I heard it from him, so this time he gets the credit.

I often feel like doing anything less than spectacular is worthless. This is simply untrue. In my years of re-entry, I’ve learned that my life isn’t changed by big moments as much as it is by small ones. With the benefit of hindsight, I can see that in the last few years, I’ve amassed a decent collection of Next Right Things.

Of course, the big “aha” moments are important as well. They serve to remind us of the purpose behind the right decisions we make every day, and sometimes they can even clue us in as to what the Next Right Thing could be. But they don’t define us. Those little things that we do every day, our habits which lead to lifestyles–Those things end up shaping our destinies.

#38: Remembering Where We’ve Been (Because It Really Is Amazing)

Given that I write a blog about the subject, this statement may seem obvious–but I love talking about missions.  Honestly, there are few topics of conversation that will make me light up faster than when someone asks about my time on the field.

It’s not because it gives me an opportunity to brag about how exciting my life has been.  Rather, it’s because–even after more than five years off the conventional mission field–something about missions still lights a fire in my bones.  For six years of my life, it was literally my job to travel the world and tell people about the God who made them, and who loves them so much that He sent His Son to redeem them.  Even though my day-to-day looks different now, at my core I still identify as a missionary.

And why wouldn’t I?  For me, this is a very deeply personal matter.  My parents met through Teen Missions International.  My Dad would go on short-term trips every year while I was growing up, I spent my early teenage years overseas with my family, and my wife and I met on the mission field.  I couldn’t run away from it, even if I wanted to.  Missions is in my DNA.

#26: When Your Friends Lose Faith (or, a Case for Discipline)

I think one of the saddest characters in the New Testament is an obscure man named Demas.

Demas is only mentioned in three verses, and always in passing.  In both Colossians and Philemon, he is included in the list of Paul’s coworkers sending greetings to the letters’ recipients.  However, in 2 Timothy, Paul expresses his sorrow to Timothy at having been abandoned by Demas, who ‘loved this present world,’ and left to go do his own thing in Thessalonica.  Today we would call Demas a back-sliding Christian.  Paul called him a deserter.

I remember the first time a good friend and former coworker of mine–let’s call him Tom–declared himself to be an atheist.  We had worked together on the mission field; and when I knew Tom, he had a deep love for God.  He was an honest guy, always wanting to learn more, and very genuine in his love for others.  It shook me that someone so solid could fall away like that, and it had only been about a year since his departure from the field.

I grieved for the lost faith of my friend.  I’ve grieved like that for too many others since.

#23: A Changing Calling, an Unchanging God

“For many are called, but few are chosen.”
-Jesus in Matthew 22:14

I don’t like to use the word “calling.”  It’s not that I have a problem with the concept, it’s just that when we hear someone talk about what they’re “called” to do, it conjures up a lot of images and assumptions that, if we’re not careful, can lead to confusion.

Usually in a missions context, when we talk about calling, we mean the specific direction we received from God to become missionaries in the first place.  I remember many conversations over coffee about how we first “heard the call.”  These were great stories, and always very encouraging.  But we can sometimes assume, especially in missions, that the call itself is immutable.  The assumption is that, because God doesn’t change, the calling won’t either.  I believe that this assumption is incorrect.

Don’t get me wrong here–I’m not talking about our salvation, our discipleship, or obedience to God being wobbly things.  We’re all called to follow Jesus, hands down.  That doesn’t change, ever.  But when we follow Christ, He may lead us down some paths we didn’t foresee at the start.  Sometimes He may call us to a task for a time, and then on to something quite different.