This past week in PA School, a man who graduated from Trevecca’s program several years ago came to speak to us about practicing in foreign countries and all that it entails. He and his family are moving in the near future to Kyrgyzstan. As he was describing the people there and the goals of the organization he is working with, I was reminded of something I felt when I served abroad.
Short-term mission trips get a lot of flack sometimes. Some of it is understandable. Many people go on a mission trip and are more excited about the tropical flora, fauna, and that last day at the beach than they are about the people there. I've been on three overseas short-term mission trips to third-world countries myself, and let me tell you, I didn't want to come back. It's not because the scenery was unlike anything I've ever seen. I think it's because the spirituality, the Christian practice, is so real and simple that it begs me to stay.
I was mulling this over as he spoke about how house churches are illegal in Kyrgyzstan. How real faith becomes when you no longer have a church building and it's illegal to worship together in a house. His mission in that country is simple. Love. Encourage. Bring people hope. Shine a light. In America it's harder to do that, not because Christianity is oppressed, but because it's complicated.
In the States, we have the privilege of making Christianity really complex. We have time to get ourselves in thick, ethical conundrums. We spend a lot of time thinking and forming arguments. Does God care about this social issue? What about my choice of career? We have the opportunity to think about whether God would allow this to happen or if he would reveal himself to us in that way...we have made it complicated.
Christianity is not this way in other, poorer places. It's simple. The message and the charge is simple.
I appreciate a good conversation about the philosophy of God and what it really means to believe in God. I need to be well-versed in these things to have meaningful conversations with my intellectual, atheist friends. I don't need it, though, to have faith. More often than not, Satan uses this to distract me. He uses it to make me feel unqualified from truly practicing Christianity because I don't have all the answers. This is not how it should be.
I needed this reminder. It’s been a hard couple weeks. Once again God has not called me to sort out every medical-ethical issue, engage in every political debate, or ace every test. God has called me to act justly, love mercily, and walk humbly. He has called me to shine a light, to walk in Jesus’ shoes. Simple faith is what I need, and I thank God for reminding me every once in a while.
