The danger of the short term investment, why I chose college over YWAM

Burning passion. It is something my generation definitely has. We are passionate about justice, freedom, and living life to the fullest. I thinks it's amazing and I love to see passionate young people pursuing their dreams. However, I have seen a disturbing trend began to take place, and I've seen it happening in my own heart.

Passion without investment. 

Perhaps it is a trend that every generation of young people face, being passionate about something but not willing to spend years investing your life into it. Often, the case is that we simply do not want to commit to something we will not be interested in in five years. (Or for Christians something that "God has not called us to") So we invest ourselves for six months, maybe even three or four years, and then we move onto the next thing.

    In many ways this trend is nothing more then humanism. We want to be satisfied in our callings and purposes (because it's all about our personal satisfaction). In my own life, I know that I want fulfillment out of whatever God calls me to. This has created a mindset for me that if I do not feel fulfilled in what I am currently doing that it must not be God's will. This is such a dangerous and harmful mindset.

Our purpose in life is not to feel fulfilled or complete, our purpose in life is simple obedience and radical love and passion for Jesus.

 If this means that we are doing something boring or not fulfilling then so be it. Sometimes I think God calls us to seasons that are boring or unfulfilling to see if we will be faithful in them.

Before I came to BCOM (Bethany College of Missions) God challenged me with two options.

Option 1: I could go back into YWAM and do missions right away, have great community, and feel the immediate satisfaction of pursuing God and making a difference in the world.

Option 2: I could invest the next four years in college, get an education, and then go onto the mission field.

Obviously I chose the second option. Don't get me wrong, I love YWAM. I have an enormous respect for my friends that have chosen that path in life. It is certainly not an easy life and they are some of the most radical Jesus lovers I have ever met. For many, I think this is exactly what God has called them to in this season of their lives. I hope to someday work with YWAM again.

However, I think there is a huge danger in pursuing the short calling instead of the long term investment. Often times we as Christians get the calling to go into missions but we do not take the time to invest in that calling. We think that this calling means jumping on a plane and traveling to another country. We do DTS (Discipleship Training School) type schools and then think that obviously missions work means staying on the field. Instead, God may be calling people to invest their entire lives, future and all, into missions. This means taking time to pursue education and training that is more extensive. One of my professors challenged me this week when He said that we should always pray that God doesn't send us into the field until He thinks we are ready. For this professor it meant waiting until he was thirty, he then spent 18 years in Brazil, and he said he was willing to die there.

That is commitment and true passion. 

How many young people are willing to invest so much into their calling that, if God calls them to one nation, they will be willing to go and spend the rest of their lives investing into that country. A calling like that takes time to invest in. It takes time to nurture and cultivate that kind of real passion that will stay with you when you hit the rocky road overseas. This world needs more then just passionate people, it needs investors. People who have the kind of passion that doesn't just seek to go but seeks to go in the best possible way. For many, that means getting an education that will enable them to work in countries that are closed to the gospel. What would happen if a generation of well educated, passionate, Jesus loving young people began to go overseas. If they were able to influence all spheres of society because they were able to work in all spheres of society.

It's time we invest in our callings. To take the time to seek after the hard things in life so that we can have the greatest impact for the Kingdom. 

Learning from South Africa

I watch as the dark city of Johannesburg passes by. It's five in the morning, so traffic is light and the city has the eery quietness of early morning. The last two days had passed like a dream. From stepping on the plane on Wednesday I hadn't stopped moving. I'm tired, but also strangely at peace. Being in South Africa was like coming up for a breath of air after being stuck under water. The rush and relief of the adventure reminding me that life isn't as dull as it sometimes seems. But it also reminded me of the urgency of my calling. That I cannot simply sit back and watch life go by. That there are people in the world who are in extreme need of help, now.

Since I haven't blogged in awhile I guess I should give some background on life. After getting back from DTS a few months ago things seem to fade back to how they had been before I left. On a spiritual level I was at a much better place but in the natural sense life almost seemed to pick up right where I left it. I went back to two of the jobs I had had before I left and hung out with pretty much the same group of friends. I think as humans we naturally gravitate towards what we know and thats what happened. It wasn't necessarily what I wanted, to be living the same life I had been, but it was the most convenient. The danger is that when the physical goes back to how it was it is often hard to keep the spiritual from drifting pack in that same direction. As the months went by I began to lose a lot of my passion and fire for God. I simply wanted to live a comfortable life and get through this season as quickly as possible.

I believed the lie that I could be a Christian and comfortable at the same time. The truth is the moment we make our chief desire in life comfort, we reject the life that Jesus calls us to. A life of total surrender. A life that will call us to go to the uncomfortable places. That will call us to say the uncomfortable things, and to do the uncomfortable works. A life that is spent in complete reliance and faith in Him. The irony is that this kind of life is the only hope we have of finding true comfort.

When I went to South Africa I was forced to look at a world that made me a bit uncomfortable. Because it forced me to see a world of poverty and pain. A world where people live with the constant threat of hunger, violence, and homelessness. A world where comfort would seem to be unattainable. And yet I saw people who were comforted by the Creator of the universe, and that was more than enough. Even though their stomachs were not always full, a roof was not always over their heads and they did not live in safety, they spoke with joy about the love of God. About His faithfulness and provision. I was given a small taste of physical poverty. But saw the abundance of spiritual wealth.

The truth is that Christianity is not about being comfortable, its about being radical. Radical in love, hope, joy, and faith. It means waking up every day and saying "Your will be done today Father." That is not a very comfortable way to live. Because it takes all the control that we seek in our lives and throws it into the hands of God. Yet I think it is in a lifestyle lived like this that we find joy and peace. Peace in knowing that we can rely on Jesus for everything we need and that though we may be hungry, homeless, abused, and poor, He will always walk right beside us. Comforting us in the moments of pain and bringing joy that is unimaginable even in the face of extreme need.