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A Letter to Future Goers

Posted on Saturday, December 29, 2018

Future Goer,

The advice I want to give you is this: 

Break. 

Break as you go, saying goodbye to your loved ones who will be living their lives for the next two years without you. You don’t have to act strong and unaffected by your own pain of leaving. You can and should let your heart hurt, cry with your family and friends, mourn the time you are missing with them. Your sadness in leaving does not compromise your confidence in Going.

Break as you choose and are forced to let go of pieces of yourself. As you release the many roles you’ve played in your life thus far, where you have found so much of your identity. Let the ground beneath you break as you experience the shakiness of being a like a clueless child in the setting you came to serve in, and embrace the awe of rediscovering that Jesus is the Hope remaining, the Comfort needed, the Lover awaited. 

Break as your eyes are opened to new realities. To the heartbreak that comes with poverty (financial and spiritual), with systems that seem to be crushing those you are serving, with the stories of real people living what used to be stories on the news. Let your heart hurt, weep as you grieve the injustice and brokenness of the world as it is now. Break and then turn to see the beauty of the gospel in a whole new way, as our Living Hope that remains and comes and promises soon to reign in Justice and Peace and Righteousness.

Break because it is necessary. It will be necessary over and over again, and you need not be afraid of it. You also don’t need to do it alone. Vent, speak, cry, run, express it with the people God places around you in proximity or heart space. Do everything you can to stay where you are; don’t let your heart grow numb to the people around you, or to the whisper of the Spirit within you. 

Jesus will be with you. He is pleased with you even now before you go. When you are weeping and near despair, He will be with you. When you are striving to earn the grace He’s freely given and trying to be the best missionary ever, He will gently (or maybe not so gently- whatever wakes you up), bring you back to Himself and the radical goodness of the gospel. He loves you more than you want to please Him. And He loves the people you are going to serve more than you ever can. Trust in His promise, and live this next two years in the joyful expectation of His presence. 

I’ll just leave this rockin’ quote here for you as well.

“The beauty of this bigness is that it is small—down to each life. God’s vision is a call to move forward into the future in the full operation of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control, with a fearlessness that could only come from him. Wherever there is injustice or oppression, anything less than God’s intended purposes from the dawn of Creation, our God has always set his people on the trajectory of redemption. The Cross is the center of this story—Christ and him crucified; the gospel is always glad tidings and great joy for all mankind. And now, we live and move in that truth and goodness; we live unveiled, and we are prophets and ambassadors of the God way of life.”               -Sarah Bessey

 

May you be filled to the brim with the love, the peace, the grace of Our God as you seek to obey Him. May you be comforted by His love for you and encouraged by His invitation for you to join Him in the work He is doing all around the world. 

Much love, 

M

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