Keeping Your Summer Alive
By Elizabeth CookWe’ve all been there. Its the final night of the trip and in typical GE fashion we relish together the highlights of our latest excursions. In far-flung locations where distractions are few and God somehow seems more real, our thoughts and emotions tangle with how trip fervency will soon collide with a return to regular life. Why does coming home often seem like a let-down? How do we keep that fervency alive?
Mission trips are duly thrilling. They bend our perspectives. They pull us from the mundane. They give us challenges we crave.Yet somehow our human minds easily compartmentalize life. Home is where I work and study. Somewhere out there is where I experience God. Yet we serve the same God in the jungle as in the lecture hall and office. We’re called to minister both in the uttermost parts of the earth and in Jerusalem. Is the latter glamorous? Rarely. But real? Definitely. Home is where I experience the daily mercies of God, the value of transparency, and the meaning of perseverance. Home is where convictions are forged and disciplines developed. Home is where I know God on a fundamental level.It’s not that I muster self-initiated strength to be a super-Christian with unnatural enthusiasm. It’s not that I pretend I’m elsewhere. It’s that I keep focused on my life calling to glorify God. Period. My geographical location is incidental.
Home life is not just about preparation for what God could do with me out there next summer, but about personally experiencing His presence today. There is inherent value in short-term international missions, but there is comparable value in long-term domestic missions. The majority of the time it means doing seemingly small jobs. But when done faithfully to His glory these small jobs yield eternal impact.Maintaining a God-focus at home produces character rooted in His strength. It encompasses submitting, abiding, and relishing in His majesty. It’s not a chore list. It’s not an onerous burden. It’s an abundant life of being one with Him who gave all for me.And it's such a life that will be used mightily by God to glorify Himself both here at home and elsewhere out there.
Elizabeth Cook is a Certified Nurse-Midwife from Iowa. She served with the Chiapas medical team this past summer as the clinic administrator. In her spare time she enjoys hiking, baking, and reading. Oh yes, and she's a dedicated coffee afficionado.