Tending Your Own Garden
“Make it your goal to live a quiet life, minding your own business and working with your own hands, just as we instructed you before.”
- 1 Thessalonians 4:11
I have a confession… I’m not that big a fan of missions. You may look at my life, this ministry, and my travels and assume it’s my favorite thing. That’s actually not the case. I’ve had people try to convince me to do missions and I just didn’t see that over my life.
When I read through Scripture, the word “missionary” was not in the Bible. I talked to so many missionaries who left their churches because they were burnt out from other Christians calling them missionaries. Even this week, I was told by a pastor that it was my unique calling to help teens in foster care. When I opened my Bible, it told me in James 1:27 that helping the orphaned was a unique calling for all Christians. It told me God sent apostles, like Paul, to oversee churches across the world - but it was not a “missionary”.
I also saw that God loves our missionaries. Those who are labeled by this term truly are Christians doing God’s will - following all of His commands. However, helping others does have a caveat. Before you consider serving others, consider how you are available. I get very frustrated when I see churches who have overwhelming needs in their community running all over the globe - while children are in foster care in their community, trafficking is rampant on nearby streets, and there’s homeless right in front of their very own buildings.
It reminds me of 1 Thessalonians 4:11. Work on your own life first. Place yourself and your community in a position to serve others. I’m one of the ones who was absolutely guilty of serving others before things were dealt with in my own life. I used to go on frequent mission trips and I may or may not go on one in the future. Right now, there is a crisis in my home state of Kentucky where children are sleeping in social worker’s offices and that tells me there is a need for me to work right here to build up our own community.
It can be so easy to go to another country and love people you see every day then go back home. Being rejected daily by the child in your home who is scared of you because they’ve never had a home before is hard. Worrying if the father of a baby whose dad is in prison will find out where you live because he is angry is hard. Serving the homeless and maybe seeing them a week later and they are still homeless and bought drugs with your money is hard. BUT, God didn’t say go do what is easy - He said do the hard things. Work on your life. Love the family in front of you. Serve your community. Before considering serving, check out this checklist for your own life:
Can I provide for myself?
Do I have any debts I need to pay off?
Is my family provided for?
Can I meet a need in my family?
Is there a need in my church?
What needs are there in my community?
Why do I want to go on a mission trip?
Is there something I can learn from the community I’m going to?
Is there someone in that family or community that can already meet the need?