5 Things I've Learned Since Leaving Full-Time Missions

At the risk of sounding like I have it all together (because I don’t), here are some things I have learned in the past almost seven months of being out of missions.

1. Everyone needs some humble pie... even me. I have learned that I was never holier or better than anyone else just because I had the title of missionary. Since being in America, one of the most encouraging things has been meeting other Christians who are living with missionary hearts in the midst of the world. God very quickly showed me people who have deeper and more committed prayer lives than I do, and who have been living lives of evangelization much longer than I have. So alas, I must confess, I am not the bomb diggity that I thought I was .. unfortunately.

2. I will never stop being on a wild adventure with a loving Savior. Despite leaving a life of frequent transition, lots of community, multi-cultural living, and radical amounts of prayer . . . I am not done being a Christian. Jesus has never left me, even in the moments when I feel lost because of the big transition that is happening in my life. He has never changed. Maybe our adventures will look a little calmer for the moment (or will they?), yet He is still the same God who calls me deeper in trust every day. I hope He continues to surprise me and wreck my life until I am old and wrinkly and gray (assuming I make it that far). I am learning to be thankful more for the consistency of His love, than for anything He does for me or anywhere He leads me. Today I am thankful just that He is with me for the journey.

3. Community is a necessity. I cannot be a Christian on my own. I am weak and fragile and sinful and I just can’t live without the encouragement and love of my brothers and sisters. I wander. I get discouraged. I need prayers, and real living, breathing people to pray with me. I need people to laugh and cry with me. I need people to remind me of God’s goodness when I can’t see it. We need each other.

4. America is not evil. Don’t laugh. That is a real thing I had to learn. It is horrible to stand in a grocery store and stare at the price of organic eggs when chickens used to lay free eggs in your bed. It’s awful when you know that the price of your groceries every month could send a kid to school for almost a year. And yet, we have to eat. I can either leave the grocery store overwhelmed and empty-handed (which I did a few times), or just suck it up and buy food and do my best to love at all times. So I have to eat my leftovers and thank God for the uncomfortableness that comes in life when you have met and love and know your neighbors in other countries. Dorothy Day says, “This world is God’s world and we have no right to consign it to the devil.” So, America is not evil . . . I guess that means I can live here.

5. The Lord’s path for me was not written clearly on a piece of paper and mailed to me on the day that I left missions… and that’s okay. You mean that can happen? I have no idea... but it didn’t happen for me. And I am learning to accept it. I don’t have all the answers. I don’t clearly see the road, but I know the One who made it, and most days, that has to be enough.

Obviously, I have a lot more to learn. Seven months is nothing. But I am thankful for all these little lessons along the way. Pray for me!

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