Missions

I’m pretty lazy.

I like to sleep. I have structured my life, including my job, around my desire to wear big-girl shoes as infrequently as  possible.

So I like comfortable. I like cozy.

I like easy.

But really, easy isn’t really a good thing for me.

So tomorrow morning, I’m hopping on a plane at the god-forsaken time of 7AM to meet up with a team of folks that are ready to throw off “easy” too.

We’re headed to Guatemala to let our hearts be broken for people the world has discarded.

I’m getting off my couch for a little while. But you don’t have to leave yours.

Where do you come in?

Four simple steps:

Pray. Encourage. Share. Go.

Seriously…this isn’t about me going to Guatemala. It’s about sharing the stories of the people I encounter. Putting faces and names to the abstract ideas of poverty and hunger and pain.

It’s about demonstrating how each of us can share our gifts to leave the world a better than we found it.

Pray

• Pray for our team to remember this trip is not about us, it’s about Jesus.
• Pray for the children we will comfort and the families we will feed.
• Pray for our leaders to teach us ways to serve as Jesus served and to love as Jesus loved.
• Pray for others to hear our stories and be inspired, too.

Encourage

We will be experiencing heartbreaking realities of poverty and hardship, and I’ll need constant encouragement. And nothing encourages me more than knowing that you guys are here.

Join my list to get new posts in your inbox. Then each day, click on “Leave a comment…” at the bottom of the message and, well, leave comments. 

Share

Tell someone about Guatemala. Share these stories on Facebook and Twitter (there’s a link at the bottom of every post) or with your family and friends.

In fact, you can tweet this post to your followers just by clicking here.

Help inspire others to make a difference.

Go

Consider participating in a mission trip of your own.

If you don’t know where to start, Adventures in Missions offers trips (both in the US and abroad) for all age groups. Many local churches and humanitarian groups organize trips, too.

Pray about how God wants to use you to make a difference, ask him to show you the right opportunity, and trust him to equip you.

“When we encounter the needs of the world…we realize we can be part of something more…”
—Jeff Goins, Wrecked

If you change one thing about the world, what would you change? Leave a comment…

Every once in a while, I look in the mirror.

I look into the eyes of the woman looking back into mine, and I wonder who she is and what makes her tick?

What gets her riled up?

(Yeah, I’m a little weird, I know. Just humor me, ok?)

What I mean is that every once in a while, I’m prompted to take stock of how I’m living. How well I’m using the gifts that I’ve been given. How well I’m making the world a better place. How well I’m doing with the opportunities that cross my path.

And then I think about how I measure “how well.” And then I get mad at myself.

Because you know what? I can’t say I’m doing enough. There’s always something more I could do.

It’s not always mine to do.

Recently, I found about a need. A pretty big need, in fact.

A friend is taking in two kids that have lived a harder life in their six short years than most of us will experience in our lifetimes.

My friend has never parented 6-year-olds before, so she doesn’t have neatly labelled boxes of hand-me-downs in her attic. She doesn’t have bunk beds. Or extra toys. Or coats and shoes in their sizes.

I wanted to give her all these things, but having never had 6-year-olds myself, I felt helpless. For a moment, I wished for my old job back so that I had piles of money so I could go buy stuff for her.

I got mad because I felt insufficient.

Then I thought “maybe my role here is to spread the word.” So I posted it on Facebook.

Then I got mad that people “like” stupid pictures of cats with hats, and share trite little sayings about Jesus and rants about the war on Christmas, but not one person stepped up to offer one piece of hand-me-down clothing.

I got mad that I couldn’t get others to meet my friend’s need.

But then I got a phone call from another friend who has been unemployed for a year, offering up some things her son had grown out of. And I thought of the hardships this friend has gone through in her life–unimaginable difficulties–and I saw God at work.

I saw one person truly understanding the broken heart of another.

And I saw how my role wasn’t to meet the need myself, or to get lots of people involved, but simply to connect one brokenhearted person to another.

What didn’t feel like enough to me? It was enough for God.

So what riles up the woman in the mirror?

I get mad at “ordinary.”

I seethe at the status quo.

I find myself frustrated when I settle.

We are meant for more. But we’re not meant to be or do it all.

We are meant to live in community. To all be individual parts of a whole body, working together to help each other, to encourage, to inspire, to make this world a better place.

We each have a part, we each have a responsibility. And while each of us has a different role, it’s critical that we all step up. That we say “yes.” That we live out the love that’s been given to us.

So when I look in the mirror, I’ll still get riled up about not doing enough, but I’ll also try to remember that I’m not the only one in the world.

What gets you all riled up? Leave a comment…

*Photocredit: Lovecocozombie (Creative Commons)

Sorry Jeff – bad pun, but I just can’t help it…

Because I’m goin’ to Guatemala with Jeff Goins! (and 24 other super-awesome people).

The silence squeezes my chest. My heart pounds harder with each calming breath.

This is not working, this fighting.

* * *

I sing the songs. “Where You go, I’ll go.” “If our God is for us, then who could stop us?” “You make all things work together for my good.”

I show up on Sundays. I lead service projects. I serve and fundraise and take care of the kids that God has placed in our family. I pray.

But I still fight God every day.

I pray for guidance that I ignore.

I pray for peace from drama that I stir up.

I expect more than a road map. I demand a freshly paved road.

But He gives me a direction and says Go.

He doesn’t say “here’s a brand new GPS loaded with the voice of Charlton Heston, and cash for gas and road snacks. When you arrive at this point on the map, you’ll arrive at your office and will have meetings for three days and here’s the agenda. And then you will return to your ugly but comfortable writing chair and sit in it and write meeting recaps.”

Nope. Just “Go south.”

It’s time to stop fighting. You are God. I am not.

What are you fighting against (that you know you should do)? Leave a comment…

I feel like a piece of fuselage, smoldering on the beach.

In a beautiful place, surrounded by the good life, but still pretty much a hot mess.

I’m Wrecked.

But what I’ve learned recently is that while I might be in a place right now that’s not comfortable, that’s not pretty…it’s important.  This is the place where I grow.  This is the place where I will make decisions that shape the rest of my life into one of deeper compassion.

This is where I choose what matters to me.

A Different Path

In most of the western world, we spend our lives focusing on growing.  Collecting.  We focus on More.

I buy a CD, I listen to it a few times, and then I want another (Ok, I download it now.  Even better.  I don’t have to leave the house, I don’t have to take the 15 minutes to drive down to Best Buy, I don’t have to fight with that ridiculous sticker that they seal the plastic case shut with.  Click.  Get a cup of coffee. Listen.  …but I digress….)

I get a job, and not very long after that, I want a promotion.  I want a new project.  I want more money or more respect or more responsibility.

I want a new, better, faster car.

I want a bigger house with better trees and a six-burner stove.

I want more.

But here’s the thing.  More never satisfies.  Ever.

I’m trying to fill the Grand Canyon with a bag of McDonald’s trash.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

Today, a new book is hitting the shelves in bookstores everywhere.  Like, a real book on real paper, people.

And I don’t tell people what to do very often (ok, I tell a lot of people what to do a lot of the time…but this time I actually mean it…), but seriously guys, you really need to click on over to Amazon or B&N or go to your bookstore and buy this thing.

Because it’s about fixing that Grand Canyon-sized hole that we all have.

It’s about filling it with compassion.  With love.

It’s about allowing our hearts to be broken by a broken world, and then actually getting dirty.  Getting into the middle of it and making a difference somewhere, somehow.

Jeff Goins calls it “being wrecked.”  

“We always assume someone else will come to the rescue, but it’s never us…It’s human nature to look after your own survival first, even when it’s not a matter of life and death.  We can’t help it.  We keep scrambling for scraps from the table, until someone is finally courageous enough to…obey our conscience.  To stand up and do what is right.”

Y’all, it’s time.

It’s time to ask ourselves: “What if the purpose of my life is not about me?”

I love you guys.  I love how you all encourage and inspire me, and I hope I give a little bit of that back to you two or three times a week.

Today, it’s time to do a little bit more than click and read and move on.

Today, I really want you to invest $9.90 (or £6.33 or ¥773.39) in the future of the world in which you live.

Yes, I feel THAT strongly about this book.  This is seriously about changing not only your own life, living more fully and with greater satisfaction and meaning, but it’s also about changing the lives around us.  About bringing hope and about demonstrating real, true, unconditional love, and about leaving this world a better place than it was when we started.

It’s about living a life that’s not about me.

It’s about prioritizing people over playthings.

So guys, this book is short.  I read it in a weekend.  Don’t be all like “Oh, I already have so many books to read, I can’t possibly read another.”  I know you have a copy of 50 Shades Of Grey hiding behind your cookbooks.  This is cheaper than that.  And far better for you.

Ten bucks to change the world…well, ten bucks and a life.

Are you with me?  Leave a comment…

Click here to buy it right now (if you’re in the US.  You global people…well, I’m not really sure what you have to do to buy stuff.  That’s a whole different post about American arrogance…for another day.  And this is NOT an affiliate link and I don’t make a little sliver of a penny when you buy this.  I just get the satisfaction of knowing that we’re changing the world.)

(As a launch bonus, Jeff and his publisher are giving away $158 worth of extra awesome stuff from now through Saturday, including eBook versions, an audiobook version, some awesome interviews, and an Action Guide.  In fact, our small group will be going through the action guide together.

Buy it wherever books are sold, and then shoot your receipt over to his publisher–details here–to receive the download link, and you can start reading it before Amazon even ships it to you.  Talk about meeting the need for immediate gratification?)

 *Photo credit:  puuikibeach (Creative Commons)