Good morning…
This morning I prayerfully crafted an email to my twenty-two year old son. Following his graduation from GA Tech in May, he feels called to be a missionary to college students in Australia for one year. Beginning this week, he will meet with friends and family members, inviting people onto his “support team.” I sensed God laying on my heart a vision for my son’s calling, so along with other words of encouragement I felt compelled to share with him the following thoughts.
To my son I wrote: “I think it is so cool that you are feeling called to minister to college students in a country where faith is not emphasized. The college years are crucial years for people as we develop our character, as we make choices about career, as we seek to find our ‘helpmate,’ as we set our future priorities. If God is left out of the equation during the college years of life, we are put on a worldly trajectory. Without a guiding faith, we focus on living for ourselves, not for God. We might be good people and want happiness for ourselves and our loved ones, but to be used by God to help heal the world’s hurts, we need to know God and ask God, ‘How do You want to use me today?’
In my heart, I sense you going to Australia because God wants those college students to be impacted by a living faith like you have been impacted by a living faith in college. Think about how different your life would be right now if God had not touched you in a personal way at GA Tech. You likely would be focusing on worldly success, how to get the best job possible to provide for yourself and your loved ones, setting yourself up for a happy, comfortable future. That’s not a bad goal, it is just not all that we are designed by God to do and to be. If college students in Australia are not introduced to Jesus, they will be making key life choices for themselves and they will less likely to play an impactful role in God’s healing work across our globe.
Jesus’ true invitation to college students (and to all of us) is to ‘live life with God’ on earth and in heaven. Life is hard. The older we get, the more we see this truth splattered all over our lives, all over the news, all over our world. The faithful people you will ask onto your ‘support team’ will gratefully partner with you in inviting college students to become healing agents, to ‘live life with God’ in Australia just like we are seeking to ‘live life with God’ in the United States.
We are all designed to love God with our whole heart, mind, and soul and, from that filled up place, to be loving to others as we are loving to ourselves. Matthew 13:33 (CEV) is the verse I sense grounding God’s call. Jesus also said: The kingdom of heaven is like what happens when a woman mixes a little yeast into three big batches of flour. Finally, all the dough rises. You are being asked by God to mix yeast into a batch of Australian flour and you are inviting others to financially and prayerfully support this call of God upon your life.”
What a privilege to experience the kingdom of heaven rising like dough across our globe.
…Sue…
