Since church on Sunday night, I've been doing a lot of thinking about being a "laborer for the harvest." I've felt a real affirmation of my calling to go into the ministry after I heard the sermon. It made me squirm in my seat with the preacher's call to really seek to follow the Lord's calling and to be a laborer for the harvest. After the sermon during the offering, the lady on the piano started playing "I Love to Tell the Story" and I had to struggle to keep my emotions in check.

Anyway, last night I had my Foundations of Missions class where the professor urged us to consider sacrificing our cushy lives here in North America and going to serve somewhere in the slums of a third-world megacity. It's been tugging at me since then (realizing it's only the morning after, but anyway...) I became really interested in missions a year or two ago, and what I thought I'd really like to do is to serve in Europe and play a part in the work of the Church there. However, once I got thinking about it, my thoughts turned to the idea that I was just trying to say I wanted to do God's work while disguising the fact that I don't want to give up the comfortable lifestyle I lead. I started to become aware of that struggle within myself just recently. I'll make no bones about it: I'd love to stay in the West, have a nice house, nicely polished late '60s Chevy's, and a bit of money in the bank. The thought of making the sacrifice to go to a completely undeveloped part of the world and giving up everything I have to serve the marginalized scares the living daylights out of me. I don't know if I could do it. The struggle in my mind now is living up to what Isaiah says in ch. 6:8--"Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?' And I said, 'Here am I. Send me!'" What incredible boldness on the part of Isaiah. I only pray that I may be filled with that too. I desire deep within my heart to serve God wherever He wants to use me. But actually living up to this is going to be a real struggle.