A Heart to Serve and a Heart to Love

I was posting something on Facebook for work today and I saw my mom posted on of her Facebook memories on her FB Story and it was a picture of a friend and I getting ready to go to Guatemala with “#3yearsagotoday”. It was my second time going to Guatemala and my second mission trip.

I’m not sure who’s reading this, but maybe mission trips you think of Christians going around the world simply to convert people to Christianity. While this may be the case for some, I don’t think that’s the only thing that should be done. I believe that the end goal should be for the love of God to be known in a selfless and fulfilling way.

I remember some time around the trip, my mom was telling me about how mission trips have changed. If I remember correctly, people were more straightforward about how they approached others about Jesus. In some cases, you could say maybe even some were too eager & lacking in a bit in wisdom, which led to results that were less than ideal. Now, from what I understand, most mission trips are very service heavy. People go to different places to fulfill the physical needs of others, as a gateway to help them spiritually. While things have changed, I believe the goal has stayed the same.

When thinking about how mission trips have changed, I couldn’t help but think about the Gospel of Matthew. John the Baptist would go around telling people, “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.” (3:2) and then Jesus took over, when John no longer was able, and said the same (4:2). Can you imagine what life would be like if we still used this same approach today? What if we went to other countries, ignored the needs and just told people to repent for their sins because Jesus is coming soon? I’m not sure it would go so smoothly. There needs to be balance and this is one thing I love about Jesus’ ministry. He went further to address the needs of the people he was talking to. It’s hard to listen/focus when you’re in pain, or you’re hungry, or heartbroken. But when your eyes are opened or your heart is mended, you’re more able to open yourself up to other things.

When Jesus leaves his disciples with the Great Commission (28:16-20), He does not stop at making disciples and baptism, He also tells them to teach everything He’s commanded as well. During His time on Earth, He taught us how we are to treat those who are in need, with the foundation of all his teachings being to love one another. That’s something we need to always remember when we decide to do some kind of mission work. We are to serve others but, most importantly, love others.

Remember, missions is not about traveling to far away places to serve. There’s people all around us that have physical needs and spiritual needs. Your mission field does not have to be global, it can definitely stay local. And for whatever reason, if you can’t go, I’d recommend a different approach: send. Support the people who can go, to still help fulfill the Commission.

The steps taken may have changed, but the motive should always remain the same.