Mission-Minded

This past month the June team has been in Ukraine. Tomorrow they will travel to their next location: Romania. Since the day they left on this mission trip, they have been in - what I like to call - ministry mode.

~My own definition of Ministry Mode ~

A laying down of one's personal needs and wants in an effort to put others' needs before theirs.

Rather than having an expectancy to be served and loved,

they go with the expectancy to serve and love all they encounter

(at the store, on the street, in the orphanage...etc),

regardless of how they are treated in return.

Their mission: to love, and allow Christ's love to be seen in and through them;

to share the message of hope and freedom that God has sent them with.

I actually cannot speak for the June racers in this area, but I know this is the mode I would be in had I indeed left, as planned, in June. I know this, because it is the mode I turn on whenever I go on a mission trip. In a way it makes sense. If your mission is to locate and expose a terrorist, you probably will not be in your "mission-mode" until you are actually sent on that mission. Then, that becomes your one focus.

ONE MAJOR DIFFERENCE between the two missions: God has not placed dates or parameters around the mission He sent us on. No matter where we are, no matter how old we are, and no matter what we do, we are called to love and serve at all times.

"Even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many."

~Mark 10:45~

"Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other"

~Romans 12:10~

It is so easy to drift back into the selfish lifestyle of serving my own needs, and boxing myself into my own life when not in "Ministry Mode". Rather than beginning the day with "ok, Lord, who do You want to touch through me today? What is today's mission?" and actually seeing the lives around me and how God could use me to love and serve them, I begin with my to-do list, check things off as I go, and wonder why I don't feel like I accomplished much by the end of the day.

Yet, I have been called to love. When I consider putting down my own selfish ambitions in order to serve others, I honestly feel too lazy and selfish to do it...lol...yeah...

BUT here's the ironic part: By giving up something, you'd think you'd be losing something, but ironically, when we give up our own agenda, and focus on God's agenda (i.e. LOVE), we are filled with joy, peace, and even more love! Because it is what we were created to do, we feel most fulfilled and function the best when we choose to love. Since God IS love, His life flows through us as His love flows through us.

SIDE NOTE:

I'm not saying to

completely give up

what you need to

do each day...

Rather, when we put

God's agenda first in

our life each day,

God's love pours

through us to those

we encounter

AS we go about

what we need to do.


 "...if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us."

~1 John 4:12~

SO, I suppose the World Race has already begun for me, I was just so self-focused, I didn't see it.

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith."

~Hebrews 12:1-2a~

With this in mind, I can see more clearly now the route God is sending me on during this mission (not mission "trip", but life-mission):

July 2010 ~ Virginia

August ~ California

September ~ the Philippines

October ~ India

November ~India or Nepal

December ~ Thailand

January 2011 ~ Cambodia

February ~ Asia (we'll know which country later)

March ~ Romania

April ~ Ukraine

May ~ Kenya

June ~ Uganda

July ~ Tanzania

August - whenever ~ The USA - wherever God sends me next ;-)