Is missionary work fun?

Periodically, we hear the following when we visit someone / when we see someone who knows that we do missionary work.

Oh, how nice of you to do that! I think it would be fun to do that too!

We usually start giggling about it. Why? Because the question is: is missionary work always that much fun? The answer to that is very clear: No way.

What?! Just how?!

Let’s try to explain it with the following example: Almost everyone reading this works (or has worked) for an employer. The employer has work that you would like to do, so you apply for that position. That employer has a few conversations with you about it, and you enter into an employment relationship. Congratulations, you have that great job!

But is that job always fun? In all honesty… no, not always, right? Yes, it can be great, but are all your working days fun? The answer to that is also very clear: no. The job description was perhaps presented a little better than the work really was, the colleague who has to work with turns out to be a jerk (and the employer determines which colleague you get, you can’t just send that colleague home), the living/working distance was a little worse because of all the traffic jams, and that work that seemed so fun in the beginning turned out to be a little less fun. That’s called work. That’s part of it. You chose that job, free choice, this is work.

But if you no longer enjoy it after a while, you can also choose to apply for another job. You are also free to do that. Yes, that has consequences, but if you’d like, you can get another job.

Missionary work is no different. It’s work, not a hobby. With a hobby, you can choose what you are going to do today, but not with work. With a hobby, you can choose whether you want to sweat or not (gym, cycling) or you choose a hobby where you don’t want to sweat (model trains, knitting).

There is no work without sweating. Full stop. Perhaps “sweating” means sleepless nights for you from worrying about your work, to the point that you become overstressed. It doesn’t matter whether sweating is literal or figurative, you will sweat. That this is so was our own choice. Adam and Eve had the choice to eat “from the tree”, they / we did so and there are consequences, which are very clear in Genesis 3:

To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”

Genesis 3:17-19

In other words, the world is no longer perfect, and you have to work with the thorns and thistles to eat your bread by the sweat of your brow and ultimately die. So, that’s clear. Whether you like it or not, this is what it is. This is no different with missionary work. Is every day a drama? No. But you will sweat and you will die. Sounds harsh? It is what it is, and that truth may be harsh and not always pleasant? But…. yet missionary work is different…

In your commercial job, you have chosen the employer, and you are free to leave and find something else. Missionary work is different. Let’s try to explain it this way:

Does a sheep choose which shepherd it wants to belong to, or does the shepherd choose which sheep He wants in his flock?

Does a sheep choose which pasture it can graze on tomorrow, or does the shepherd choose which pasture the sheep must (!) graze?

Does the sheep choose what is done with “its” wool and when it is sheared, or does the shepherd choose that?

Does the sheep have a choice? Yes, the sheep has a limited choice of which clump of grass it wants to eat and which not, but that’s about it. Are all that sheep’s days miserable? No, because the shepherd cares for His flock and also ensures that there are “green pastures” for His sheep. But is it fun every day? No. It is raining, there are thorns and thistles, the sheep is sheared (whether he wants to or not) and The Shepherd decides. Not the sheep.

It is not an employer/employee relationship. Everything but that. The sheep cannot apply for another job, the shepherd has (literally) all power over the sheep. Does that bother the sheep? Well, if it’s a good shepherd and the sheep trusts that shepherd, then there’s nothing bad about it, right? But that sheep does not have a choice to graze somewhere else, or not to give up its wool or not.

And now we go a little deeper towards missionary work… and now it may become very, very clear. The sheep has no say in what happens to him. The sheep must work for the shepherd. Full stop. The sheep is a “slave” of the shepherd.

Wow! What? Slave? Yes, think about it again, if we combine that sheep with the definition of “work” in the first example:

We have to sweat because we ate “the apple” and that is the punishment for our actions. That is not voluntary. We have voluntarily chosen to eat that “apple”, but the consequences are very clear. Missionary work is no different. And then the next step comes: God also chose us (as sheep) to work for Him in His flock. He decides, not us. So he determines our work, the pasture in which we must produce wool and milk. We are His slave. What?! No?! That’s absurd! Well… no, it’s not:

For the one who was a slave when called to faith in the Lord is the Lord’s freed person; similarly, the one who was free when called is Christ’s slave.

1 Corinthians 7:22

Very clear, right? God determines what we do. He is the master, we follow that master. And not in an employer/employee relationship, but in a master-slave relationship. Sounds quite extreme, actually. And it is indeed that extreme on the mission field for us.

We also ate that “apple” and as a result, we as humans became slaves to sin (sweating, thorns, thistles). The earth is rotten, these are the consequences of our behavior. But through Christ, we are now no longer slaves to that sin (the consequences of sin remain on earth, let us be clear about that) because He has redeemed us and that is why we are now His slaves (see previous Bible text, no escape from it) and He determines our (missionary) work. And that sounds as extreme as it is. We literally “sweating like a glassblower in a sauna.”, and slowly but surely, work ourselves to death for Him. In one year we become five years older and we also notice that. (and yes, we are now trying to get that to 4 years) And yes, that is quite extreme. It literally costs us everything…

If we think we can escape that and turn it into a fun hobby where we can just choose what we enjoy doing, then we are not doing what He asks of us. And that is not an option for us. The Bible is clear that we are His servants and not His hobby friends.

Are we there, then? No, because the good is yet to come! Are you ready for it?

Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

John 1:12

Yes, right now, on this earth, we have a big problem with the sweat, thorns and thistles. Today, there is no escape from that. And that means that when we work for Him, we also suffer and have no choice but to work hard for His glory. But He has now made us His children:

So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.

Galatians 4:7

This means that when we arrive in heaven we are no longer a slave who suffers from sweat, thorns and thistles, but we enter as His children. And that is a different from an “employment relationship” that awaits us. Because that is no longer an “employment relationship”, but a perfect family relationship with God! A wonderful legacy awaits us! Wow! Can not wait! Because let’s be honest, missionary work is work and not a “fun hobby” and sometimes those thistles sting very, very, very nasty. But then we also know:

Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Matthew 5:12

We also know that many of the missionaries / pastors are struggling to make ends meet, despite the verse below. So yes, that certainly doesn’t make it any easier. But if you are working for God’s glory, as a missionary / pastor: hang in there, we are proud of you and if we can help you with a retreat for the necessary rest, please feel free to contact us.

Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of a double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,” and, “The laborer deserves his wages.”

1 Timothy 5:17-18

And perhaps you are also thinking about doing missionary work full-time? If so, be VERY sure whether God is asking you to do that. Only when you are VERY sure do we say: DO IT! Because sometimes it is anything but fun and certainly not a hobby. It is work, with an employer, where you have no choice about what you like to do. Definitely the shepherd, a shepherd who is good to you, but who allows you to graze in a world that is no longer perfect…

And if The Shepherd really calls you to work in His flock, full-time: do it! It is the most beautiful sacrifice there is. We love it.

And maybe, you are a missionary… and It’s getting to hard and you don’t know how to keep up with all the thorns… We are there to help you, give us a call, write us an email. Please do. You are not alone in this. Not by far.