Because You Never Know Where You'll Be in a Year:

I'm amazed at how many people waste their lives away in hypotheticals about what God's will for their life is going to be. We spend so much of our time preparing for a potential ministry that we rarely live today. It's beautiful to want to mission in Japan someday, but to have that hypothetical devour your whole life when you've got plenty to be doing right here in the states is counterproductive. We are our own living ministries. It's not about where we're going it's about what we are right where we are. You can plan your entire life around other countries and never make it there. So many people get ideas built up in their heads about where God wants them to go. But honestly, I don't believe anymore that God calls us to specific locations. I just believe God calls us to love people. If you fail at loving people in Arkansas or Wisconsin or Arizona you're going to fail at loving people in China. We waste so much of our lives planning for hypotheticals in the years ahead. But you never know where you'll be in a year...and if it doesn't work out, people stand befuddled, they become angry and confused with God. If they make it, they fail at what God's called them to do anyway because they don't have people skills or building blocks or the foundation to get by. It's okay to love another country and it's okay to want to help...but if you never call your mother, if you neglect your siblings, if you're critical or overbearing to your peers, if you take advantage of people, if you have more dream ethic than work ethic, you're not preparing for your ministry in the right areas. You'll pack your bags and take all those habits with you. Ministry is not a job, it's breathing and alive; it fills seconds and moments and hours. I wonder how many people look back on the huge gaps of their un-lived lives in which they were "preparing" (coasting) in between "now" and their ministry. Were they not called in those times too? We're not biding time...we're living on precious time; this isn't a test run, this is the real deal--every day. This is God's will in action. Now that's a terrifying concept if you've been sitting around wasting the days in wait. What could you be doing?