The Truth
My friend Dave Panos wrote this on a recent mission trip to Uganda. For any who have experienced or have even considered a short term mission trip, this is well worth the read.
Much has been written about the short-term mission trip. Why we go. Where we go. How we go. What we gain. What we give. And even what we hurt when we try to help.
For me, all of this is summed up in one idea, and that is, the mission trip is the closest I can ever get to the truth.
The truth about the world, how it works, and its divine creator. The truth about each of us, and certainly, the truth about me.
The truth is, there are really only two commandments. Love God; Love His Children. We make this way more complicated than it is. And when we love “the least of these”, our purpose in life is revealed and nothing can be the same again. You can learn this truth on the trip.
Dave Panos and friends
The truth is, the body of Christ has no boundaries. He knits us together with brothers and sisters we didn’t know last week, whom we’ll know as family the rest of our lives. You play on a team that is bigger and more amazing than you ever imagined – you just needed to meet them.
The truth is, we really are holy. We are priests filled with Christ’s spirit, and when you actually start living like that’s true, a supernatural power is unleashed that cannot be stopped or explained. On the mission trip, we encounter people who live like they are holy and we are in awe. On the mission trip, some see this in ourselves for the first time, drawing upon the supernatural within us, doing things we didn’t know we were capable of.
The truth is, earth is a place full of overwhelming pain and suffering that leaves you wondering where God really is in all of this. And then you realize God is in you, and you are here, and if we were any good at all at following those two commandments we’d put away so much of the physical side of the suffering. It may take two, or twenty trips, but you can learn this truth from going.
The truth is, God answers prayers. When you go and serve, and change the world of someone you meet – if only for a day – you are the answer to somebody’s prayers. It brings new meaning to the phrase “on mission” when you realize that its God’s plan to use you in the prayer answering business.
The truth is, when we are living according to his will, the stuff that used to matter doesn’t. On the trip, we get a real taste of living for Him, away from the stuff that distracts and ensnares us. You can hear and see him so clearly. You have your first real taste of freedom. And you finally learn what joy is.
The truth is, Jesus hasn’t called us to a garden walk. One where we can just stop after saying, “I believe in you”. He calls us to get up on the cross with him. To suffer, as he did, at the sight and sound and smell of the human condition. And then He calls you to die to self for it like he did. He calls us to the cross, he truly does. You can see that clearly on the mission trip, but please don’t let that stop you from going.
The truth is, that Jesus is the truth. It all starts and stops with Christ. Because of Him and for Him, we live and we love and we go.
