It is odd to think that at the time that these words will be published, I will have been a part of my first mission trip to the University of North Texas to build relationships with students and talk about Jesus! Part of me is extremely nervous, but another part of me is extremely excited.

In the back of my mind, I often find one glaring doubt I have about the trip: what if I come across as the typical, touristy, "treat mission trips like glorified vacations" type of person? That's the last thing I want to come out of my trip, to assume that I will "bless people" with my presence, but in reality just be selfishly using the trip for myself.

I find that many missionaries (especially young, short-term ones) tend to struggle with this conflict, and do strive to overcome this negative assumption of what a stereotypical missions trip looks like.

But as I was preparing for my own trip to UNT, I found myself meditating on a specific passage from the Scriptures that helped me orient myself. It comes out of the Gospel according to Luke, where Jesus is sending out seventy of His followers to be missionaries (to travel to surrounding towns to proclaim the Good News - or Gospel - that the Kingdom of God had come near).

Some of the instructions that remain culturally relevant (given my modern day context) jumped out at me. Jesus says to "not take a purse or bag or sandals," to "first say, ‘Peace to this house'" when entering the house of a host/guest, and to "stay there, eating, and drinking whatever they give you" (Luke 10:4-7 NIV).

It may seem weird for these verses to resonate so deeply with me. Like why should you not take a purse or bag, and to say the whole "peace to this house" bit? But, I think there is a great deal of modern-day wisdom that we, as followers of Jesus, can learn. We just have to think about what it would mean to live out these commands in our modern context.

Think about when you are going on a vacation.

You pack more than enough stuff to make sure you have everything to feel comfortable and then some, you typically stay in a hotel that has dozens of amenities (and you complain when just one thing isn't the way you want). You constantly spend more money trying to find the best and hottest places to eat.

When we posture ourselves like how Jesus commanded His missionaries to live, we don't have to worry about falling into the trap of living a "vacation like mission".

This is the part of the "good Christian article" that tells you step-by-step how to apply these verses as a missionary. Holding your hand through the process of reflection.

But I'm not going to do that. That's yours and God's Spirit's job together to reflect and ponder.

If more missionaries (especially you young, short-term ones) meditated on and tried to live out this passage of Luke 10, we would have more missionaries who are conscious about how they enter the environment of their mission field. How they bring an atmosphere of peace, and how they are grateful for how God is sustaining them within their time as a missionary (which is all the time, actually).

To be a missionary is to continue to live as Jesus lived and to follow what Jesus taught...which is exactly what being a Christian is all about.

How often do you truly think of how claiming to be a Christian means claiming to live this way?