Ever since I was a little kid, I wanted to be a part of something bigger. I wanted to do more. I wanted to be more. I wanted to do something meaningful with my life. I needed a purpose. I needed to do something that was worth living for. Something bigger than myself, something that would bring purpose and meaning to my life. I wasn’t afraid to dream and let my imagination bring me to a place where my life was a bigger deal than it was at the time, where my life had purpose, and where I was doing what I loved.
As I started to get older, I became more aware of what was around me. I became aware of the brokenness and the suffering. The suffering did not discriminate, it didn’t choose sides. People of all different walks of life, different cultures and languages, were all suffering. However, they all had one thing in common, a soul. Their soul is an eternal part of their being that is going to outlast their physical life span. It’s a part of them that decides if they go to heaven or hell. It’s the part of them that is searching for something satisfying, something fulfilling, something real. Something that is going to take them from their pain, from their suffering, and bring them to a life of abundance.
Jesus asks us an important question in Luke chapter 9. He asks us: “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit or lose themselves?” In other words, what have you actually gained if in the process you lose your soul. Your soul is the most valuable thing you own. Your soul makes you, you. This question changes things. It takes the perspective off of the things that we see as valuable like our homes or our cars, and places the spotlight back on what God says is valuable: our soul. We typically put more emphasis on what we own and what we have in this life because that’s what the World teaches us. It teaches us that items and material value make us valuable. It teaches us that those things are what make us who we are, not God. And it makes sense that if God values the human soul, then I should too.
I’m going because I know I can’t just wait around and expect someone to go for me. Some people are made to be stayers and some are made to be goers, both are equally important to the kingdom of God, but God has made me to be a goer. People need to know that they are seen, that they are heard, that Jesus loves them, and that there are humans out there who love them too. They need to know that there’s more to life than what they have right now, that freedom and abundance are waiting for them at the hands of Jesus.
This message is bigger than us, this is a cause, this is a mission that will outlast our physical lives. This is worth leaving family and friends to live out of a backpack and travel to the non- touristy parts of the world, because people need someone to look them in the eyes and tell them that they are valuable, that they’re worth it, and that they’re chosen.
This is why I go.
