(This post was actually published back in July on the Mission Year site, but I added it to this blog so you can see how I got involved in Mission Year.)
So how did I get here? Why am I doing this? Mission Year seems the
most unexpected, and yet most natural thing for me to do with the next
year of my life. A couple months ago, life after graduation was a giant
blank canvas. To say that I didn’t know what I wanted to do is only
partially true. To say that I was more concerned with trying to please
people than trying to please God is more true than I would like to
admit. From the moment I learned about Mission Year from a friend, I
knew it was something I wanted to do. The only thing that held me back
at first was the unspoken (or sometimes spoken) expectation that I was
supposed to try to land a well-paying job right out of college. And yet,
over and again I also heard the following advice: Just take a year to
volunteer – get away and have a valuable experience…This is the
opportune time.
In retrospect, I can see how the decisions I’ve made over the past few years have influenced my decision to do Mission Year.
I first “got into social justice” at the end of my freshman year. By
some odd series of events, I found myself co-leader of a creative
activist group on my campus. But that was just the very beginning of my
struggle to understand what the Kingdom of God really means, and what
implications that has for my life. I became a firm believer that
followers of Christ should be aware of what is going on in the world,
should be politically active, should advocate for the oppressed…but I
also eventually heard God telling me that he wanted me to get to know
the people I was advocating for; to take a closer look at how Jesus
lived, and to “go and do likewise.”
My first response to this was to join the new homeless ministry on
our campus, where I got a small but powerful taste of what the Kingdom
of Heaven might mean. I became fascinated with the concepts of
simplicity, sustainability, community, and justice. And I could tell you
about the people I’ve researched who are learning how to live out
lifestyles that embody those values. But now it’s time for me to learn
how to live it out. I don’t want to take one more step in this justice
journey without getting my hands dirty the way Jesus did.
It’s one thing to believe that what Jesus did was good. It’s totally another to live it out.
I’m about to spend the next year of my life among “the poor.” And
hopefully that means “the poor” is a label that will continue to
dissolve into living, breathing people that I can love. I find it’s
really hard to explain to people what I’m going to be doing this year,
because any word-choices I grasp for seem already heavy with stereotypes
and prejudices. Even saying I’m going to live in the “inner-city” makes
it sound like I’m some noble saint going off to risk my life for the
sake of druggies and hobos.
But that’s totally upside-down. What Jesus did when he came to our
world was to turn our ideals of power, privilege, wealth, and security
on their heads. I’m doing Mission Year because I want to give flesh to
my words and research. I’m doing Mission Year because I’m becoming
afraid of the numbing effect that living in comfortable suburbia can
have on me. I’m doing Mission Year because I can’t begin to love the
poor that Jesus loves until I step into their shoes. I know that joining
Mission Year is going to mess with how I live the rest of my life, and
that’s why I’m here.
