Two months in and growing strong!
I ended the title with an exclamation point! It is a hopeful gesture more than a show of exultation. This week marks a full two months since we moved back to Sweden as a family. A church friend asked yesterday if we are here to "recharge our batteries" before returning to missions. I sort of laughed. Yes and no, would be the answer to that one.
I was reminded again during the sermon yesterday that we have to live COMPLETELY where we are at the moment. We will miss opportunities to thrive and grow and bless and love if we constantly dream and hope to be somewhere else! We can get lost in that mentality: I'll get to that once I'm ____________. We can fill in the blank with a place or a circumstance: "once I'm back in Africa" or "once the kids finish school" or "when I've finally reached that certain level of spiritual maturity." Honestly, we'll never really get "there" so lets just live the life we are in now!
In our case "recharging our batteries" includes being near family and being included in a loving church family. We have been loved in all of our fellowship families on the mission field, but we sometimes long to be loved by those from our own cultural background. We long for teaching that fits our situation and culture. But the longer we have been away from Europe and USA, the less we actually fit in with the European or American way of looking at life and living out God's love in this world. We do still fit with family! We will have to get as much as we can while we are nearby!
We are at risk of not being a real part of anything here on Earth. That is maybe one of the benefits of mission life. We will be a little lost in the world and find our real connection as brothers and sisters following Jesus. As we struggle to feel a good fit here we need to be aware of belonging to a bigger family in a bigger mission.
I was reminded again during the sermon yesterday that we have to live COMPLETELY where we are at the moment. We will miss opportunities to thrive and grow and bless and love if we constantly dream and hope to be somewhere else! We can get lost in that mentality: I'll get to that once I'm ____________. We can fill in the blank with a place or a circumstance: "once I'm back in Africa" or "once the kids finish school" or "when I've finally reached that certain level of spiritual maturity." Honestly, we'll never really get "there" so lets just live the life we are in now!
In our case "recharging our batteries" includes being near family and being included in a loving church family. We have been loved in all of our fellowship families on the mission field, but we sometimes long to be loved by those from our own cultural background. We long for teaching that fits our situation and culture. But the longer we have been away from Europe and USA, the less we actually fit in with the European or American way of looking at life and living out God's love in this world. We do still fit with family! We will have to get as much as we can while we are nearby!
We are at risk of not being a real part of anything here on Earth. That is maybe one of the benefits of mission life. We will be a little lost in the world and find our real connection as brothers and sisters following Jesus. As we struggle to feel a good fit here we need to be aware of belonging to a bigger family in a bigger mission.
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