We read the Bible through our own cultural lens. This parable below seems pretty clear cut to an American, right? “Don’t be too busy. Focus on Christ.” That’s what we draw from it. We have a strange habit of under-exegeting and overdoing the hermeneutics. It’s all about us anyway right? When you read the Bible through a different cultural lens, you see a whole new side—often a truer side.

See if you can find a different message than the one Westerners find. This is Luke 10:38-42.

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We got a great comment last night from Erin on “But What About My Debt?” Here it is:

Debt is a very serious issue. It keeps many missionaries from the field.

Here’s MU’s open answer to Erin:

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I recently went to a debriefing with MTI which helps missionaries re-acculturate into their home society. Just as in a film in which soldiers come home and nobody quite understands them, not even their wives and family, missionaries experience the same thing. It’s good for them to be able to communicate with other missionaries and validate their experience.

Whether somebody was in The Netherlands or Afghanistan, they experience very similar emotions upon moving back. The missionary from Afghanistan might have to deal with more change, but he can discuss the same things as the missionary to the developed world.

As we met together one day, a woman mentioned that she was as politically diehard as anybody you’ve met when she left the States. She said the greatest offense she received when she first left the States was when somebody in her target country criticized Ronald Reagan. She was fuming. Well, as she continued to live abroad, she mellowed. Though she retained her political convictions, she realized that America is not the greatest country in the world—at least not in most aspects. She came back with a much bigger picture.

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When I was a freshman in college, my Bible study leader had a huge life decision to make and it caused him quite a bit of emotional turmoil.

Do I continue making great money and climbing the corporate ladder, or should I give it all up, humble myself by raising my own support, and go on staff with a college ministry? Where could you use me most God?

While wrestling with this, he decided to go camping alone. He brought his tent, a little food, a journal and a Bible, and spent the weekend praying. He turned his phone off and left his computer. It was just him and God.

As you ponder a possible future in mission work, would you consider the same? Will you cast off distractions and spend a day or a weekend with God in a secluded and undistracted place?

Those could be some of the most important hours of your life.

My friend has been on staff with The Navigators for 6 years now.

“Foxes have holes and birds have nests, but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head.”  -Jesus

I used to have no idea what that meant.

I recently relocated from my overseas mission field to train and study full-time in order to do Bible translation work. Moving was stressful. I got home without a car or a home base or any routines. I started from scratch. In the first two weeks back my time was split between three homes.

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Isn’t this all too true sometimes?

*photo credit: Experience Mission’s Facebook page.

James says in 4:17 that “Whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” If you are completely convinced that God would have you be a missionary but you don’t do it… It could be sin.

It’s a tough call. I’m glad it’s not mine to make.

At the intersection of the world’s greatest needs and your greatest abilities is your missionary calling. Don’t wait for a burning bush moment. We’d all like a post-it note under the door with an assignment from God. We’d like nice bullet points for people-group, country, language, and departure date.

You won’t get that though.

Examine yourself, examine your life, and determine your greatest abilities. From there, decide where the needs of the world could be met by your abilities. Then, decide what kind of missionary you should be.

It’s that simple. We don’t need a specific calling. The Bible has already called us to do it. Some stay, some go, which are you?

Don’t wait for the burning bush, open the Bible and go.

Even well-meaning people in your life will give you resistance. I’m back in the US for a time (here’s why) and am facing it already. People don’t want the world to be reached. They don’t want you to use your gifts.

It’s hardest when people that are close to you give resistance. They sometimes have ridiculous reasons—that’s easier. When they give misguided versions of real reasons, that’s harder.

The path to missionary work is a lonely one. Are you up for it?

Do your generals: A lesson for prospective missionaries… and students.

There are two 18 year old individuals. Neither knows what they want to study at college. They take two paths:

1. The first stays home and works while trying to figure out what he wants to do.
2. The second goes to school and starts with his generals, confident that this will help him figure out what he’d like to do.

Who ends up with the upper hand in the end? Almost always the second person.

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