July 22, 2013

• Motivations for Missions

   

  In the past several years, I have had numerous opportunities to function in a missionary setting.  And yet, there is always a bit of ‘angst’ in the background, at least for me in trying to figure out my motives and to strip away the extra.  I have been reading “Gracias” by Henri Nouwen who spent 6 months in Peru (of all places, including Cuzco) and Bolivia.  In there, he talks at some length about why people become missionaries and leave the comfortable life to go to the unfamiliar or unknown.   He lists the following..

  1.  A desire to serve Christ unconditionally

  2.  An urge to help the poor

  3.  An intellectual interest in another culture

  4.  The attraction of adventure

  5.  A need to break away from family

  6.  A search for self-affirmation

  7.  Guilt

  8.  Desire to save

  I can think of several other motivations that he did not list, such as a desire to build up “good works” in an effort to look good to others, or even to God.  Also, we may be trying to make up for past failures, although that may correspond to guilt as well.  I could probably see all of the above in my motivations as well, although of course the correct answer is Jesus!  I don’t want to overanalyze, but sometimes I can’t help it….

  He lists the last 2 as the most damaging motivations, because both make the missionary and life on the mission painful.  For example, when I go to a foreign country because I feel guilty about my wealth, I am in for a lot of trouble.  Guilt can not be taken away by hard work, and acts of service still make us vulnerable in that we still are much richer than those we serve.  In the same way, the desire to save people from sin, from poverty, from exploitation, or whatever causes despair when the harder you work, you realize that you are very limited in actually accomplishing anything.  So depending on the success of “saving” makes your life destructive and depressive.  Although they are damaging, it is probable that no one in the mission field is completely free of those particular motivations.  

  But, the great challenge, is to live and work out of gratitude.  The Lord God took on our guilt and saved us.  So our task is to give visibility to the Divine work in the midst of our daily existence.  When we finally come to the point that we realize our guilt has been taken away, and that only God can save, then we are finally free to live as missionaries.  Clinging to guilt is resisting God’s grace, and wanting to be a savior is competing with God’s very being.  And both are forms of idolatry.

  None of that is particularly earth shattering, and I have taken most of the last 2 paragraphs out of his book, but that somehow helped me to strip away the extra layers of motivation, and get down to the basics of what serving Christ is about.  No matter where or when or how, it is God at work, and we join Him in the work that He is already doing…so comforting, and relieving of guilt for long hours with little results, or service without recognition.  In the midst of a large city and thousands of people, the task seems too large.   Even in relating to people at home, or even a mission board sometimes feels like justification for existence as a missionary needs to continually be provided.  And yet, I feel a freedom in this work right now.  In fact, the thought came to me today that maybe the only reason I am here in Peru is to share the gospel with my Spanish teacher.  And if that is the only reason, then I need to be sure and do that, or I will have failed.  (Oh, there is the guilt again).  

  So these are thoughts that come after only 12 days in Peru..so what will happen in the next 60 days?  We will see.  

  • 9:45 pm
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