Calling

People talk about the cost of doing long-term overseas medical missions. And that’s for good reason—it makes us face many things outside our comfort zones.

But sometimes I think too about the cost of staying. I consider our temperaments, our skills and where they are more needed; I think about the great commission and God’s kingdom, and if I take all that seriously, should I not be asking myself why I’m not going? Should I not have just as strong a calling to stay as I would to go?

Because the easier path here would be just that: easier, more comfortable, but not necessarily less costly. In fact, in eternal terms it may be more costly. It would be much easier to let my life slip comfortably by; to allow the years to pass on my own terms, without truly growing and being challenged in my faith, without serving in a way that lasts.

There is nothing wrong with the cushy suburban life. We like house-shopping through car windows as much as the next couple. I just don’t want it to be a default. I don’t want to be there passively, because it’s easy, or obvious. I feel I should be as called to that life as to a life overseas.

I used to think being “called to go” was a big deal. But it’s no bigger a deal than being “called to stay.” It’s not really the going or staying, but the calling, that matters. And that just means being obedient to where we feel God is leading us. If we do end up going, it probably won’t be from some dramatic moment of revelation, but from a gradual sense of leading, circumstances and promptings. If we end up staying, I hope it will be just as intentional a process. Because the cost of not living intentionally for Christ, wherever we are in the world, is too great.