So, I was listening to Lecrae’s new album, Anomaly, the other day and I heard his song Dirty Water. (Side note: This album is the stuff. If you haven’t heard it yet, go listen to it right now. It’s so amazing) Well, the song talks about going to all of these foreign countries and doing all of these great things, but coming home and going about normal business and not doing anything to help change the community and people around you. Or maybe that is not what it said at all. It’s rap so it’s a bit hard to understand.. :P Anyways, if that is not what the song is saying, then oops. But from my understanding of it, this is what I began thinking about..
Yes, we are called to the Great Commission in Matthew 28:16-20,
“Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’
… and yes, we are to make disciples are all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. But the Great Commission is not only a call to go to foreign nations and do what the Lord has commanded. I feel like many times, we disregard the places around us. We forget that we can fulfill the Great Commission right in our backyards. America is a nation. To be a missionary, you do not have to travel halfway around the world. To feed the hungry you do not have to go to Africa. To clothe the poor, you do not have to go to Indonesia. Yes, those things are amazing and if you feel called to go do those things in those places by all means GO! Do what the Lord is calling you to do in the place that the Lord is calling you to. But remember, there are lost people in your own city. There are hungry people in the same county as you. There are poor to clothe right down the street from you. We walk past homeless and hungry people on the street every single day. Do they deserve the love and mercy of Christ any less than the people in Africa? No!
Someone can be just as much of a missionary by attending college and sharing and spreading the Gospel and the love of God as they can by joining a mission group, living in Tanzania for year and sharing God’s love that way. I am in no way downing going to foreign countries to be a missionary because that is such an amazing and noble pursuit and if you are doing that right now, thank the Lord for people like you going to all nations. But if you are a university student, a soccer mom, a butcher, a ninth grade literature teacher or a nurse at a retirement home, that is your mission field.Do not feel like you cannot be a missionary because you are in America. Being a missionary is not about where you are, but what you are doing and Who you are doing it for.
“For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in Him of who they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’” - Romans 10:13-15
I hope you all will have beautiful feet..
emily
