Matthew 22: 36 – 38

³⁶"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" 

³⁷Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

^{38This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.}

Dear Billy,

Hey, let me share with you a truth that I am still in the process of learning and that I believe has not only freed me from man’s humanistic expectations of me but has freed me from my humanistic expectations of myself.  I believe that the motivation for being on the mission field (the motivation for any Christian in this world actually) must come from a genuine love relationship with God. 

Many times missionaries are motivated by their desire to love and rescue the people in the field where they are serving.  This, at first glance, looks like a very worthy motivation.   But it’s not.  God doesn’t want us to try to love these people with our own version of love.  God is love.  It’s only through His love, God Himself, that He wants us to love others.   In this way, He gets all the glory and praise, not us.   In fact, He needs to be the One who is doing the loving…we are just supposed to be the vehicles.  If we do not have a grasp on this truth…and it’s a grasp that gets tighter and tighter as one falls more and more in love with Him… then our missionary service will be self-motivated, self-centered, and even self-destructive.   God wants to show His love for people…through us.

I have found that when we love people with a human love (to even call it love seems wrong, but for lack of another word, I’ll use it.  Let me know if you can think of a better term)… anyway, when we love people with a human “love”,  there are conditions, expectations, even manipulations that we, knowingly or unknowingly, press on others because we are looking and hoping for certain results.   When the outcome is their inevitable failure, we may become discouraged, angry, disgusted, bitter and even downright judgmental. 

In our efforts to try to teach them to obey our Lifegiver, and rightly so, we jump right over teaching them how to fall in love with Him.  Could it be because a list of rules is easier than a relationship?  Could it be because we ourselves have chosen the easy-rules path?  Could it be we have not taken the time to fall in love with our Maker either, and that’s why we don’t display His love…we don’t know how…we haven’t even gotten a grasp on it yet?  What is that old saying, “Don’t put the cart before the horse.”?  

So as a result of our “work for the Lord”, we have people trying to please us, to satisfy us, to copy us…instead of God.  What happens when we fall short or they fall short?  Both are inevitable…humanistic “love” isn’t suppose to work.  As I said before, some of us become discouraged.  Some of us become angry.  Some of us become disgusted.  Some of us become bitter.  Some of us become judgmental (as if we are not at all to blame).  And some of us just decide to get a divorce and leave the field altogether.  To “&^%$#” with it.  But if we are loving people with His love, then there will be mercy, compassion, forgiveness, patience, understanding ….a life full of grace.   Isn’t that how we want God and other people to treat us?

We tell people to love God with all their hearts, soul, body, mind, and spirit, yet we aren’t even willing to do it ourselves.  Wouldn’t our crucified lives be better teachers?  Eventually, people are going to disappoint us.  And we are going to disappoint them.  The truth is we may have only duplicated in them our own screwed up understanding of what it means to love God. Instead of surrendering to God so he can make us lovers, we are surrendering to ourselves and making ourselves liars. God knows we need to be crucified…our distorted ideas of love need to be crucified…so that it’s not us who live but Christ lives in us.  Didn’t God already explain us that?  It’s not about doing.  It’s about being (crucified) in Him and letting Him do the doing.  No wonder so many missionaries and pastors get tired and tired of.  And that’s a good thing…because only then may we stop long enough and question our motives. 

Why are we doing?  Why are we loving?  To please ourselves, others, or God Himself?

letters to billy, wrong motivaion #1

April 2, 2008

Dear Billy,

Sorry for the delay.  The last few days have been crazy busy.  We have had several visitors this past week from the states.  We had a whole lot of fun, but not much time to write.  However, I have been thinking a lot about it.  In fact, I had an experience that creates an interesting setting for your question about missionary motivation. 

Early into our first dinner together, over a big stack of pupusas, I was asked the question, “How did God call you into missions?”   It’s a question that always scares me more than a little.   Over the years, I have grown more skeptical of this inquiry because of the possible expectations of the listener.  Do people desire to hear a mystical answer, something Pauline that involves bright lights and audible voices?  Some might prefer to hear an analytical response about spiritual gifts and past experiences.  Both answers are valid and most of us end up with some kind of combination, but either way, I feel that my response may sometimes disappoint them.  It’s probably not going to be what they are looking for.  I am sure that I will not be able to put it all in a nice neat package that they can take home with them and apply to somebody else’s life.

Why does a person become a missionary?  What is the proper motivation for making this kind of radical life decision?  Messy questions can make for messy answers.

First, let’s deal with the negative side.  There are certain reasons for becoming a missionary that are certainly inadequate and maybe even downright dangerous.  No one should become a missionary just because they are floundering in their current way of life or profession.  The struggles of modern and post-modern life can sometimes cause someone to consider the ramifications of their life and its apparent emptiness.  This can be a positive experience that God uses in our spiritual formation. Difficulties can force all of us to evaluate our priorities and our investment of time and resources, but packing our bags and heading to Africa will not solve our issues.  

I remember someone telling me, “Wherever you go, there you are”.  Whatever character issue problems a person is encountering will only be magnified on the mission field.  It’s a lot like a clay pot that has yet to be put in the kiln.  It may look okay to the naked eye, but the real test comes when the necessary heat is applied.  That miniscule seemingly insignificant crack will explode into a serious crisis and the results could de disastrous.  In essence, no one should begin missionary life running away from something else.  We all need to deal with our issues as soon as we recognize that they are issues.   There are sufficient complications on the field without bringing a whole bunch of unsettled baggage.

There was a guy that I met several years ago here in Honduras.  He had experienced a great deal of trouble in the states.  His business was not doing well, his marriage was rocky and his two teenage girls were just hitting the really difficult years.  In his local church, where he was a leader, a visiting missionary shared the need for administrative personnel in his super-successful ministry.  This frustrated guy thought that this was the solution to his problems.  He thought that he had heard from God.  He decided to close his business and move to Honduras.  The extra time together with his wife away from his in-laws would improve their marriage and the move would miraculously rescue his teenagers by separating them from their dangerous friends.  You can only imagine the results.  After about a year of constant struggles, this well-intentioned brother and his shell-shocked family disappeared and we have never heard from them again.  I can only imagine that they are somewhere out there disillusioned, trying to figure out what went wrong.  I feel sorry for them.  They wanted to serve God on the mission field, but their twisted motives proved to be a recipe for disaster.  Somewhere along the way they should have received very loving and caring counsel.  Someone should have stopped them.

I’ll try and write tomorrow.  th

March 27, 2008

Dear Billy,

I cannot fully express how thankful I felt to receive your letter. It has been too long since we last talked.  I am sorry that we all did not do a better job of following-up.

Your letter has been a great source of encouragement.  I was thrilled to hear of your decision.  Certainly, it is the answer that you have been seeking.  You expressed that Shannon is also onboard with the commitment as well.  I really need to hear the whole story of how that came about.  Somehow, I had always believed that she might be reluctant to commit to the missionary life.  She has such strong ties to her family, I guess it just seemed like she would not be able to loosen her grip.  Don’t get me wrong, she will do a wonderful job!  God has gifted her in so many ways.  The real problem will be deciding which opportunities to take and which to refuse.  Nothing personal, but you really married up!  I know that I did!

Has it really been three years?  For me it seems hard to see you guys as married adults.  I can still see you two as love-struck teenagers sitting around your parents’ dining room table when we came to visit.  You both sure did put up with a lot of grief from us.  Seriously, I am really happy for you both.  Please communicate with Shannon how happy I am with the idea of one day having you both form part of our team here in Honduras.  We cannot wait to have you here with us.  Kathee and I, and the whole team, we are overjoyed at the possibilities.  Please know that we consider your decision to be a real answer to our prayers.   God is meeting our needs.

Hey – you wrote with some fairly serious questions in your letter.  First, let me say that, Yes, I am more than willing to correspond with you over the next year as you prepare to make the move.  I consider it a privilege.  I’ll try to answer your questions as best I can – but some of them are going to take some real thought.  Maybe God thinks that I need a little stretching, maybe a lot!   Your first question about the proper missionary motivation is challenging and certainly worthy of the investment (time and effort).  Give me a couple of days and we’ll see what happens.

In Him,      Tim

Over the next year, I will be posting an imaginary series of letter to a prospective missionary named Billy.  Billy and his wife Shannon have just made the decision to become career missionaries. He has asked me to correspond with him in order to help them walk through the ins and outs of missionary service.  Please let me hear your opinions, insights and possible additions....thanks, th