So having pontificated...

 

So having pontificated, enumerated, elaborated, fulminated, explicated, elucidated, and otherwise commentated on my twisted understanding of the word "mission" I regress to the matter at hand.

Perhaps by now the reader has forgotten the quote of the day;

"There is a sweet connection and understanding 

that we don’t have with others."  

While it may sound a bit arrogant, there is a special connection between those who have engaged that international endeavor I refer to as mission.  It's an experience shared with complete strangers leading to:

• the ability to look at one's own culture in a far more objective fashion than those who have never spent extended times in other countries;

• the ability to appreciate, embrace, and laugh at strangeness while understanding the truly "strange one" is oneself;

•  the ability to appreciate true poverty being not just physical, economic or social, but spiritual; and
  

•  the ability to understand there really is no such thing as home this side of glory...

 just to name a few.

Missionaries look at life differently.  They do church differently.  The do life differently.  There is a strangeness to everything.  Convenience and comfort are seen to be the tragedy and the trap that they truly are.  Whining about the weather, or one's health, or politics, or one's neighbor is seen for what it is, petty.

And I think, in many cases, there is generated:

• an unquenchable longing within;
  

• a foreignness to every experience;

• a reassessment of the value of everything; and
  

• a desire to make a difference...

which won't be satiated this side of glory.

There is a glimmer in the eye when missionaries meet, particularly if they have been in service together, or in the same country, or field of work, or with the same or a similar organization.

It may be because we share experiences that few have.  It may be because we understand the confusion of life in general.  It may because we know the price so many pay for their faith in the countries in which we have served. I'm not sure exactly what it is. 

Whatever it is...

"There is a sweet connection and understanding 

that we don’t have with others." 

and a longing to make that connection as frequently as possible while knowing the connection to come will be even better, as we pray, Maranatha, Come Lord Jesus.