** This week I continue my missions Top 10 of how to set yourself up for success while on the field. Obviously this is not comprehensive, but should serve as a good guideline to help every missionary thrive both personally and with their ministry.
Number 9 – Perspective
I have found that as I grow older in life that having the right perspective offers the ability for me to act in wisdom and sound judgement. Two things that are very needed to thrive in life and on the mission field. Abraham Lincoln once said, “We can complain because rose bushes have thorns or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.” Much of how we embrace and filter life comes from our perspective. Knowing this, I find it highly important to always have a “true” perspective or you can say a Godly perspective. Before we go further, let’s start by defining perspective…
Perspective -the capacity to view things in their true relations or relative importance.
When my wife and I had our first child we chose to use a midwife. Due to some complications, we ended up having to be admitted to the hospital. Fifteen hours later we had a beautiful baby boy in our hands. Twelve hours after that our cute little man had to be admitted to the NICU for some minor issues. In the end, he ended up staying in the NICU for 72 hours and we never left his side. Those four days that consisted of the labor and our stay in the NICU were the hardest four days of my life. There were basic discomforts of living in the hospital and all that entails, but that was really the minor stuff. The major issue at hand was that I was in a world that was completely new to me. I was now the father of a little boy who was having health problems. The husband of a new mother who is in a brave new world as well. All in the fabulous setting of the NICU of a hospital. Ugh…
The beauty during that time only came out of God gracing us with perspective. It was a tumultuous four days, but it bore amazing fruit. My wife learned that she could have a baby naturally without attaching anything to or having anything injected into her body. We learned that our commitment to having a healthy kid was rock solid. We learned to lean on a community of people around us during trying times. We understood what it meant to fight for the life of our child in an unwavering way. We learned to truly commit our child to the Lord and understand that He truly loves him more than we do. We learned what it meant to come together as a team (husband and wife) in a truly challenging time. These are the things we were doing and saw playing out in our lives during those four days. We discussed these things and believed that God’s perspective was the only perspective we could have if we wanted to actually be victorious. In what seemed to be four days of thorn bushes, we soon realized that God had perfectly placed roses to help encourage us and provide perspective along the way.
Let me leave you with what I feel are three key areas to have healthy perspective on the mission field:
1. Fruit of your mission – This one absolutely kills missionaries. Many people are results oriented, so if they don’t see the results they want it easily leads to burn out. The reality is that in most cases people just need some fresh perspective. In this case, the perspective has to start from understanding that GOD is in charge of the fruit and we are in charge of the labor. In other words, just do your job and let God take care of the rest.
2. Fundraising – The truth about fundraising lies in your network of people. I see so many people set out to raise 4k/month and they have a very small network that does not include many or any churches. The hard reality is that it will be near impossible to raise that much money. God is the great provider, but His provision might be 2k/month in this situation and you just trusting him that he will take care of you. In fundraising, your perspective has to be tied into the reality that God has a plan for you. If you are about His plan then focusing on an amount is not the priority, it’s focusing on how to fulfill this plan regardless of the amount. This is where sacrifice, inconveniences, trust and faith come into play.
3. Family – Expectations can be huge for the family unit on the mission field. Learn the language, be better kids than the other kids, don’t show weakness, have more humility, have a superior marriage and the list goes on and on. All the while, what is really needed is some Godly perspective. A perspective that should only be wrapped up in love, acceptance, forgiveness and the overall biblical, emotional and physical health of the family. Let someone else be the Super Heroes.
“For what you see and hear depends a good deal on where you are standing: it also depends on what sort of person you are.” C.S. Lewis – The Magician’s Nephew
Marvin Slaton – Modern Day Director
