Shattering perceptions.

"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." (Romans 3:23-24, ESV)


In this weeks blog, I am setting out to bust a myth. One that I was well aware of before I joined the missions community.

Myth:
Missionaries are perfect, godly, wholesome, daily Bible reading Christians who know God more intimately than "regular" Christians.

First, I would like to start off by saying this... I personally know many missionaries who possess these qualities! They inspire me everyday to know and love God more. They are people I look up to and want to be like.

But there is one really important detail about missionaries that most people seem to forget... We are real people. We sin. We mess up. We disobey God. We can be unkind and unholy. We are learning. We are growing everyday. Just like you.

Since this is my blog, I will willingly throw myself and, with permission, my roommate under the bus to prove the point that missionaries are just average people. Please pardon my sarcasm throughout this process.

I'll begin by spilling the beans on a few of my guilty pleasures.

Sometimes, at the end of a long day, my roommate and I enjoy sitting in our living room sipping on a homemade alcoholic beverage while we debrief on the craziness of our lives. Now, we aren't alcoholics. We don't go crazy and drink too much. But it is nice, on occasion, to kick back with a cold one. Or to have a cocktail with dinner.

Another guilty pleasure of mine is my choice in movies and television shows. There are days when I'm perfectly happy watching Frozen or Pride and Prejudice. But there are also evenings when I can't go to sleep unless I have watched The Heat, which happens to be littered with profanities. Or 300, which boasts half naked men and plenty of violence. I like to get inside the heads of psychopaths with Criminal Minds, and laugh along with shows like Friends and The Big Bang Theory.

Here's one that might be shocking for some people... I don't read my Bible everyday, and neither do a lot of other missionaries I know (gasp!). There are days that I use the excuse of being too busy or too tired. Mornings when I spend more time perfecting my coffee and breakfast rather than spending time being fed spiritually. There have been weeks when I couldn't even stand to pick up my Bible, let alone read anything out of it. Times when God seemed a million miles away. I make a marked effort to carve out time each day to spend with Jesus, but I'm human. And it doesn't always happen.

And there are many a Sunday when my roommate, and others we know, spend the morning at home lazing around rather than in their designated seats in front row of the church service.

Also, just because we are on the missions field does not mean that our speech is always wholesome and uplifting. Some times we get angry and we yell at those around us. Or we fling a profanity or two out of our mouths. Occasionally we gossip. Instead of responding in a godly way that would make Jesus smile, we can be selfish and needy, responding in the flesh rather than the spirit.

And a real kicker... I, along with many other missionaries, tend to rely on myself more than I rely on God. I make plans on my own. I decide things without consulting God. I get angry when God throws a wrench into my plans and it messes up my design. I would rather take credit for the things I do and experience than give God props. And I hate it every time I do it.

Praise God for new mercies every morning.

Now, there are two things that I am NOT trying to say here...

One is that these things are not regular occurrences. I don't know many people over here who swear like sailors, or drink in excess. It's just that we are normal people, too. We mess up, we loose our self-control. We are under a lot of pressure to be shining examples, but the reality is that we don't always live up to that expectation.

The other thing I'm not trying to do here is condemn all missionaries. There are SO many people I know who fit, to a T, the mold of the model missionary. But it's so important to me that you realize not everyone fits the stereotype. That we are regular people, we struggle with things just like you.

We are still a part of progressive sanctification, right alongside you.

We still hang out with friends, have fun, and experience life. We still love God, love others, and serve. We have just been called to do those things in a different part of the world.