"I wish I could get into this Missionary Thing!" I have heard this statement a number of times during my missionary career. People say it in feigned jest. Especially when they see something special happening to missionaries. Tonight for instance a friend loaned us his brand new Chrysler Sebring. Or how about this one, Someone once gave us $10,000.
I think that the "Missionary Thing" statement is a reaction to perceived preferential treatment. Granted, I had never receive $10,000 in a lump sum offering until I became a missionary. I had never had anyone give me a car, house, apartment, computer, airline ticket and myriad other things until I became a missionary.
Being a missionary does have it's definite benefits. One of the biggest of those being that we get to do what Paul did. Paul was able to recount his story to perhaps thousands before his death at the hands of Nero. We are still feeling the after-shock of his message. Paul's is that Christ-like example that seems impossible to live up to. However, I do, be it in a much smaller way, what he did.
The "draw-backs" to being a missionary, please understand my phraseology, are many, persecution, removal from family, language and cultural difficulties are just a few.
My question is "If the 'missionary Thing' is such a desirable career option why don't more people welcome it as a first choice or at least encourage their kids to pursue it? We have Christian colleges full of kids studying everything but missions.
I believe that when someone mentions the "Missionary Thing" they are thinking the following, "A missionary is someone who goes around begging for money that he really doesn't need to go to a foreign country. There he sits around doing nothing. However, he makes sure to send home pictures of a bunch of fly-eyed kids who have "come to the Savior" with the hopes of getting more money." Granted this is just my interpretation. I might be wrong.
Tell me that you haven't had these thoughts at one time or another. "Does this guy really need support? Who sets the bar? How does he know how much he will need? How is it that this guy has a better car and a bigger and newer house than I do? How come this guy always is our 'Honored guest' and always gets to go first in the pot-luck line?"
Is the "Missionary Thing" a true assessment of what goes on? Sometimes it is but not all of the time. For this reason churches need to be involved in their missionaries lives. Maybe this will entail less missionaries on the budget and more attention to those who are.
In any case is the "missionary thing" something that Paul would have been a part of? How about taking the thought a bit further. Would Jesus have been a part of it? If you study the lives of Jesus and Paul you will note that they were continually on the run. They seemed to be constantly preaching and teaching. They had no earthly possessions. At the foot of the cross the soldiers gambled to get what Jesus left, a simple cloak and undergarment. You've seen pictures of Jesus on the cross with a loin cloth. What happened to that? There wasn't one! He was so poor that he had to borrow a tomb! Paul had to ask Timothy to bring him his cloak and books! Jesus and Paul had little to nothing!
Missionaries are human. We fall prey to temptation. Just do a little research and you will find much sad evidence of that. We often use the "I'm only human" argument to excuse our gluttony. I believe that missionaries get a bit of a taste for the "preferential" treatment and begin to see themselves as "The Honored Guest". With that feeling comes a materialistic attitude that stains ministry. This is especially evident in a foreign culture where the people aren't quite up to "American" standards of living. American missionaries can come to the field with a preloaded set of expectations that need to be fulfilled before they can properly function in their true objective. With that materialism comes the big house in a guarded community, a new car and all of the electronic toys of the average State side family.
Shame on the "Missionary Thing". Father forgive us and help us, whether missionary or "normal" person, to live each day for you with more focus on missions and less focus on things.
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