Dear reader,
I cannot lie I am on the edge of my seat.
I want to jump so high and so far off this cliff we call a normal life.
Yet as Christians (little Christ’s if you do your research) we cannot ask God for our normal life back.
This pandemic, this world, this way of life is one of the best things that has ever happened to us.
It disrupted us. Made us furious. Everything within us wanted to scream at God every waking moment.
One thing I noticed was The Church was failing. In so many ways.
Most people think of ‘church’ as 3 songs, an offering, a sermon, and a prayer.
Let that sit in.
If we here in America never go back to that reality, I would be more than thrilled.
Things need to shake up a bit, and that’s my prayer for The Church here in America.
That God would break it apart and build it back up how it ought to be.
And if I get to be a tool to smash the foundation up a bit I would be more than willing.
How Jesus walked through His life was everything but normal. He disrupted the Pharisees, flipped the social circles upside down, and preached a revolutionary yet controversial message everywhere he went.
I recently got the opportunity to start watching a TV Show called The Chosen, and in the show, the Character of Jesus says something that has stuck with me for a while.
“Get used to different.”
2020 our ‘normal’ lives broke apart, shattered into a million pieces you might say. I’m sure you all have parts in your story that you wish weren’t there.
Yet here’s a thought, “When something hard enters our life why is the first thing we do is ask God for it to go away?”
Do we not want to walk through the fire? To be refined more and more? To become more like Christ?
The more I walk through this life the more I realized I didn’t sign up for normal.
I want different.
I’ve looked at what the world offers me and have come to the conclusion that there must be something more.
If you’ve been following along on this journey you know I’ve been preparing to go be a missionary through the majority of 2021.
What I don’t believe I’ve communicated effectively to you until now is that I am actually preparing to be a missionary for the rest of my life.
After this little trip is done I know for a fact God’s going to continue to use me till my last breath leaves my body or He returns, either or is fine with me.
If we call ourselves a Christian (again, a little Christ.) We are here on this earth to live radically.
That’s not the job of your pastors, elders, your favorite worship bands, the women in the nursery, deacons, or those who go overseas.
We all have the same command. And I will scream this foundational truth till God brings me home.
Go make disciples. Not please, not would you, not if you have the time-GO!
If you have fully grasped the truth of the Gospel you know what I mean, and if you do not understand and hold the same sense of urgency I have, please go and talk to The Father right now, you need to sort some things out together.
I leave today.
And so do you. You have an amazing missionary field everywhere around you. God did that on purpose. Look in your homes, at your job, and especially in that building, most people like to call a church. There are a lot of lost people in each of those three areas, I can guarantee you that.
Go to them, just as I am going.
It’s the same mission, just a different location.
Don’t pray and ask God for things to go back to normal. Ask Him to shift your view of what normal should look like, it might really need to change right here and now.
Go proclaim the kingdom of God, teach with boldness and without hindrance. after all, you signed up for this.
Until next time.
-Mitchell
