When you choose to enter in to this type of life experience, the mission field, (or it chooses you) a significant mentality shift is necessary. Part of it is also a cultural shift. The point is, I can think of no other life circumstance where it is more mandatory to embrace and accept the reality that I am ‘not my own.’ In other words, it has become apparent to me like never before that everything about who I am here can and will be used by God for His purposes. It is my responsibility to make sure I live my life in such a way that everything is redeemable or usable in some fashion. When I strive to keep my life simple and basic this task is much easier.
I continue to struggle with the challenge of staying fully present with God throughout every moment of the day. The reality is this will be a life long struggle. I don’t mean to sound noble here, but there is a real frustration for me that I can be in such a place of peace in one moment and then find myself peeved at someone’s rudeness in the next. In that moment I feel as if I have departed from my fathers presence and am then out in the world unprotected. Its so easy to get stirred up into negativity and other dark thoughts and feelings. The challenge to ‘pray without ceasing’ seems to be a calling to remain in the spiritual realm of the father despite the chaos and instability swirling around us. I love the verses of John 15 where Jesus says, “Live in me, make your home in me just as I do in you.” (verse 4, the message)