LiveDifferent Challenge (24): Get Missional!

As this posts I am driving down to Applegate to speak at a women’s retreat for the weekend.  I’ll be enjoying the beautiful Mountaintop Retreat Center, so I’ll be unplugged Fri-Sun.  This is the longest time I’ve ever been away from Dutch, so I’m sad just thinking about it, but excited to see how God will move in the lives of these women and in my own life as well.  We’ll be talking about (surprise!) Expectancy without Expectation.  Just like last time, I’ll post the notes (4 sessions, one session at a time) on the blog if any of you are interested, and for the ladies from the retreat.

Whew what a week–Tuesday night/Wednesday I apparently had a 24-hour bug of some sort so while I thought I’d be finishing up my notes I was throwing up and shivering under a blanket pleading with Dutch to quit throwing toys and crawling on the coffee table because I was too weak to discipline him.  What a day.  Thank goodness it was short-lived though, and my incredible parents once again blessed my socks off by coming over Thursday morning, taking Dutch out and playing all morning in the yard so I could finish my notes, then trimming all the hedges so the house looked ship-shape, then taking Dutch and me out to lunch so I wouldn’t have to cook.  Can you say “amazing parents”?  Yeah. I’m blessed.

So earlier this week Jeff sent me a cool blog post from LifeHacker about how to get the most out of your new town.  The essence of it is about refusing to stay in a little isolated bubble, and choosing to live life in a missional way, getting to know the world around you.  As you know, just weeks ago Jeff and I moved to a new town (a big city compared to where we lived before!), and so this obviously applies to us. But whether you’ve lived in your town 2 days or 2 decades, there’s still plenty to be gained by employing these ideas and learning to live Missional.

Missional living is really just a buzzword for what we should already be doing but probably aren’t.  To live missionally means understanding that the Great Commission isn’t just for foreign missionaries, it is for all believers, because we’re all called to be salt and light, letting the world see Jesus in all that we do.  Where we’re tempted toward the Sacred/Secular duality of life, Missional Living reminds us that all of life is a mission, that we are on mission with God, and that everything we do should serve that mission–to see every tribe, tongue, and nation glorify God as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Writing this challenge is indeed a challenge, because this isn’t easy for me. I could very easily go through my little life in the confines of my little house and yard and dutch and Jeff and the internet and never see another person except my family and close friends.  But God wants us to go out in the world, rub shoulders and get a little dirty.  I already see this at work by taking Dutch to the playground.  He loves the playground, and occasionally other kids will come and inevitably they have mommies.  It’s easiest to just remain engrossed in our own kids and ignore the other mommies, but the other day I went through the pulling of teeth that it is and actually began talking to the other mom.  Winds up she is a believer, homeschooling, but discouraged and struggling, and in need of encouragement!  Wahlah!  Hello! I was homeschooled and I’m a pretty normal, socially adjusted, educated adult. Just talking to her was the coolest thing, and I walked away marveling at God’s little divine appointments.  I would never have had the experience if I would have a) insisted on staying home all the time or b) been too shy to talk to her.  Now I’m an infant at this, so you won’t find me striking up conversations on the sidewalk, but I’m praying that more and more God would give me supernatural boldness to just be friendly, to care about people, to be willing to engage with them no matter where they are, not with an agenda of my own, but for the genuine purpose of hearing, listening, caring, and prayerfully showing them the love of Christ as God would provide opportunity.

We don’t have to be in a new neighborhood to put this into practice.  Go to the park.  Take a class.  Let your kids take a class.  Sit at a coffee shop.  Look for ways to engage in the community that God has sovereignly placed you in, and ask Him for creative ways to make a difference where you are.  Living missional is just a fancy way of saying Care about People.  It’s so much easier to just stay at home and dust the furniture.  But God has placed His glorious message in the hands of silly little mommies and daddies and students and kids like us.  Let’s get out there and shine around a little bit.  Perhaps He’ll light up a path in an unexpected place.