Having been made in the image of God, our hearts have been set by Him on eternity. Rooted in each heart is a God-given desire to impact the world around us. But in the midst of endless distractions, countless opportunities to live out our purpose can go unnoticed each and every day. Stick around this week as we look at how we live our day-to-day lives in a way that points others to the cross.

Mission Doesn’t Mean Miles

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Matthew 28:19, NASB

To the left of the parking lot exit, the sign reads, “You are now entering the mission field.” I see it several times a week as I leave my kids’ preschool, but do I really believe that?

“Mission field” brings to my mind passports, orphans with shoeless feet, extreme poverty, and a divine calling from Almighty God. While these are often true about missions, there’s much more to it. On our recent trip to Nicaragua, my narrow-minded view of missions was challenged by a teammate during morning devotions.

Building on the wisdom that comes from years of living as a missionary, my teammate and friend reminded me that you don’t need to cross an ocean to be a missionary. Instead, it’s living a life of intention regardless of where we find ourselves. Allowing this message to settle deep in my heart, I left for a day of ministry feeling encouraged and with a strong resolve to live missionally wherever I was.

Wouldn’t you know that I had the opportunity to put that resolve into practice almost immediately after returning home? Hearing yet another sibling squabble as I was washing dishes, I struggled to wrap my mind around the paradigm shift that had just occurred in my life. How was it possible that only two days earlier I had witnessed inmates in a Nicaraguan jail sing praises to God, weeping and falling to their knees praying for forgiveness? It was a hard concept to grasp and quite honestly, my life didn’t feel very missional at that moment. In fact, it felt annoying.

Remembering the words of my wise friend, I reminded myself of my role as a follower of Christ: shaping those screaming preschoolers into disciples is a divine calling. It is kingdom work. Regardless of our season of life or our location on a map, we each have a divine calling: to make disciples.

Jesus commanded believers to make disciples of all nations, but we don’t need to cross oceans to do it. Disciples need to be made in our homes, in our churches, in our schools, and in our office buildings.

Living missionally isn’t about the miles we have traveled: mission is about our hearts. It is about living our lives intentionally in order to share Christ’s love with the world around us. There is no place on this earth that doesn’t need the love of Jesus Christ, so none of us get a pass on this one. All nations means my nation and your nation, my neighborhood and your neighborhood.

Wherever God has us: that is our mission field. Let’s get to work!

Living missionally,

Traci