we're missionaries whether we like it or not
Caz’s message on Sunday talked about how the famous verse
Jeremiah 29:11 was given to a people who were completely displaced and kicked
out of their Promised Land. God’s people
were called to integrate into a new society, and God even shares that He
carried the people there. I might have
argued that Jeremiah heard God wrong after hearing those words.
We all have
times when we feel out of place, and possibly that God has forgotten us. I
clung to Jeremiah 29:11 when I was a scared college freshman living away from
home for the first time. And I related to Caz’s experience of moving to Austin
as being quite different, as I moved from California. It was lonely. And yet
God had very clearly called me to this strange place. After a while I began the immersion process
Caz described. It was not the church where I first made close friends, but the
poetry community. Not a fortress for Christians by any means. And yet this
community is as vital as church to me, and my poet friends know me better than
anyone I’ve gone to church with.
We all live in an un-Christian world. We are
all missionaries whether we like it or not. When our building is done, we will
have greater opportunity to be a beacon in the community. Until then, our
mission field is our neighborhoods, workplaces and community. We don’t need to
hand out tracts. (What a relief, right?) Our calling is much greater: to build
relationships, to listen and to point others to God through our own lives.
Beth Kropf
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