God calls us to live lives of passion, just as Jesus did. He was passionate about righteous living, specific individuals (usually on the fringe of society), and about saving the lost.
Seth Barnes, founder of Adventures In Missions, regularly makes the argument that mission trips stimulate, encourage, and grow passionate behavior. Here are the seven ways he says mission trips arouse passion in youth (and leaders, too).
1. Mission trips are themselves bold, passionate acts
They defy spiritual gravity. There is nothing in us that naturally would cause us to want to raise money so that we can serve others. That is why the world thinks we’re crazy when we go on mission trips.
2. They generate radical thoughts.
Passion for anything begins with time spent thinking about the thing. The activity of the heart finds its source in the activity of the mind. Those things that you love the most you think about a lot. Mission trips cause you to think about things in a radical way.
3. We get out of our ruts.
Our lives, like cars out of alignment, drift toward the routine and conventional, the greatest enemies of passionate behavior. By engaging in activity that is different, we do violence to our routine.
4. They confront misplaced priorities.
A priority is not a label we give an activity, it is where we invest our time. For example, sports can be a great thing for young people, but Jesus must come first. Our involvement with a baseball team, for example, must never crowd Jesus out of our schedule. Mission trips put Jesus first in our schedule.
5. They redefine us as servants and givers.
God made us to serve. The principle “It is more blessed to give than to receive” is not another tired platitude, it is part of God’s natural order – it feels right. We actually feel blessed when we give.
6. We see miracles.
Bob Clark, the retired businessman mentioned [in an earlier post], prayed for an orphan’s healing on a mission trip. He saw the orphan’s shortened limb grow eight inches in twenty minutes. You can imagine the impact this had on Bob’s faith.
7. God rewards acts of faith with greater faith.
On a mission trip to the inner city, Steve Forister prayed for a street lady with an ugly, bloody laceration. When he opened his eyes, her wound was completely healed.
After they were done rejoicing, Steve was more convinced than ever that he serves a powerful God. Five minutes later, Steve prayed for a man with a broken clavicle. After looking at the X-rays, the doctor had said it would take months to heal.
Steve remembers the rush of euphoria he felt when the man raised his previously immobile arm to the sky and then did ten pushups. The shouts of “Hallelujah!” and “Praise the Lord!” which resounded up and down the streets of Atlanta weren’t contrived; they were the spontaneous passionate response of men who had been touched by the living God.
