Missional Minded Mommy Pt. 6

This past week Pastor Matt preached a sermon called The Sent Life, it was helpful and thought provoking. At least it was for me. My thinking and therefore my actions have been challenged and stretched much lately. Maybe everyone else is way ahead in the being a gospel-centered, mission-oriented person than I am, and I am the only one that can't stop thinking and evaluating... I don't know. But just as I thought I'd kill my little Missional Minded Mommy series, more thoughts were provoked. I suppose I don't need to share them with you, but I told you at the beginning that this could be a bumpy ride.....well I meant it! :)

Pastor Matt mentioned that if we are going to embrace the sent life we have to let go of our rights. This was brought out more clearly in Small Group on Monday night as we discussed the sermon. I know that I am hindered at times when I am just tired or sick. Sometimes I just want to be left alone.... I mean a person can only do so much right? But that is just self love talking, it is about my right to have a little break every once in while.

Sunday was the sermon and that very afternoon my little heart revealing challenge came. So often I don't think of myself as feeling like my time belongs to me or my home belongs to me, but this particular afternoon I saw how deceitful my heart is. When my baby sister, her boyfriend and friend came in I was happy to show them hospitality in offering them food and use of the computer to register for my sister's friend's upcoming baby shower. But, when the headache hit and the fatigue came I really just wanted everyone to leave, or at least leave me alone. That is not what happened though. The young lady with my little sister is pregnant and has nobody but my sister, who has never had a baby and knows nothing. Needless to say I ended up sitting with this girl spending hours in front of the computer answering her questions and showing her things that she will need, because she didn't have a clue. God gave me the grace to just do it, but mostly because I remembered that we have to let go of our rights and that even meant my right to take a nap and be left alone while not feeling well. It took some prayer and faith because to be honest I really didn't want to sit in front of that computer and talk about anything that day. I kept thinking, "this is such a bad time for me." But as a person who wants to embrace the sent life and understands that God has made us missionaries for His name's sake to this world, it really doesn't matter if it was a good time for me. And you know what? The Lord blessed that little tiny effort to help this girl and it looks like I might be seeing her a little more. Plus, you know I had to follow my husbands example because my sister's boyfriend really wanted to help Rick work on the roof and he let him even though he knew it would ultimately slow him down. And even though this guy "helped" Rick all he could talk about was what a good time he had and how cool it was that Rick bought him a case of vitamin water. A 4$ investment and one happy young kid who does not know the Lord. I am beginning to see that the missional lifestyle isn't always convenient, but it isn't that complicated either. I mean how hard is it to have a guy help you out with repairs or talk to a girl about having her first baby? Yet, it isn't always at your convenience!

It got me thinking about Amy Carmichael, a missionary back in the late 1800's to India. This women colored her skin with coffee and adopted Indian garb; rather than make any women who converted dress like an English woman, which most of the missionaries did at the time. She went around the villages with a band of Christian Indian women to preach the gospel. But at some point during her ministry that she loved and thought to be vitally important, a young 7 year old temple prostitute escaped the temple and came to Amy for help. Amy Carmichael quickly began to care for her as her child and keep her safe from the temple. Then many other girls escaped and came to Amy and her group of Christian women. Soon Amy had several girls from infancy to teenagers living with her that that had been rescued from the temples or had escaped. Consequently Amy was unable to travel to the villages to preach the gospel as she instead had babies to feed and burp and diapers to change, meals to prepare, and floors to scrub and beds to make and teach the older girls chores and other life lessons. She became known as a "tied woman". Something she never intended to be. She had not dreamed of going to India and being tied to babies and domestic duties and she in fact struggled with it at first. She struggled with whether or not she should be done with mothering these girls or going back to the exciting life of traveling speaking the gospel from village to village. Ultimately, she chose the life of a "tied woman" because she remembered Jesus did not come to be served, but to serve. She began to see how Jesus did the work of the lowest slave and invited His people do the same and in so doing she was "preaching the gospel". She spent the rest of her life scrubbing floors, cleaning mouths, changing diapers, and teaching about Jesus to the many children she "adopted" (until the last 20 years of her life when she was bedridden, but still praying for and teaching the girls). It wasn't convenient and she didn't choose to invoke her "rights" as a single woman to do what was more exciting or consider more important! What an example of a person who truly embraced the Sent Life.

What a lesson I can take from her when I consider loving those around me for the sake of the name of Jesus..