Liv LeDuc is a communications intern with OneWay this summer. Liv reflects on how following God's plan is always more life-giving and rewarding than her own.
Working in missions is the last thing I ever planned on doing.
Don’t get me wrong, I was supportive of missionaries and their work. But by my logic, by growing up as a pastor’s child and being involved in church, I had been doing my part for my entire life. I thought that being “a light” to my non-Christian friends counted as living out the Great Commission.
Money was always a topic of conversation in my house. We weren’t poor, but we encountered many “relying on God to provide” moments. Younger me did not fully understand what this meant, but it did not sound reassuring.
I convinced myself I was doing enough and that God did not want me to go down the missions route. Surely I was destined for corporate America. I dreamed of making enough money to buy my parents a house, pay off debts and live a comfortable life.
The fear of not having enough, especially financially, pushed me away from God.
I began to run from a close relationship with God. I was scared that if I got too close, my plans would end up ruined. I attended church every week and lived a Christian lifestyle, but there was no true desire to serve the Lord.
To avoid the possibility of God calling me to missions, I made every excuse in the book.
“I don’t have the money.”
“I’m too introverted.”
“It’s just not for me.”
“There are already other people working in that way.”
I tricked myself into thinking that these were valid excuses. I had settled into complacency. I was checking all the boxes and doing enough to be a “good Christian.” Yet I still felt empty, and my life felt mundane and purposeless.
Then hit my sophomore year of college. Conversations, classes and conferences kept pointing me in one direction: missions. I tried my best to ignore these signs. However, God’s plan unfolded despite my constant running and stubborn heart.
At a missions conference I attended, the speaker began listing off the number of people in each country who had never heard the gospel. I was blown away. I had no idea that more than 3 billion people in the world are still unreached, meaning they have no access to the gospel. The speaker also shared how few missionaries there are in the world compared to Christians.
I had never felt so convicted.
There I was, living with the knowledge of the gospel yet living so complacently! I had the gift of eternal life and the freedom to worship God whenever and wherever, and I was taking it for granted and doing nothing to help spread this good news.
God’s calling for me had finally gotten through my wall of stubborn excuses. At this point, I had already applied to be an intern at OneWay, using my writing skills to serve on their Communications Team, but I was still waiting to be accepted. However, I knew that regardless of where I ended up this summer, I was going to pursue missions.
Now that I’m here at OneWay, I’ve been given the opportunity to live out the Great Commission in very real ways. OneWay President Michael Thompson recently posed to us the question, “Who is Jesus?” His answers consisted of “Lord and Savior,” “compassionate” and “mighty to save”.
We’re taught to live like Jesus — what an impossible task! However, I was reminded that if we want to be like Jesus, we too have to take the form of a servant. Jesus is full of love and zeal, and that is what he demands of us.
Working at OneWay has taught me that this kind of work might not always be rewarded here on earth, but that is okay. Fully living out the Great Commission requires sacrifice of plans, comfortability, financial stability and our own will.
Reflecting back on my previous attitude toward missions, I want to grab my stubborn, younger self by the shoulders and shake sense into her! My life would have been much more fulfilling if I had begun walking alongside God sooner.
Now, by God's grace, I am learning that running from Him brings about anxiety and discontentment, but walking with Him is rewarded with joy and providence.
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