Ministry is Life & Life is Ministry

Ministry is a lifestyle. These words became my mantra while I was in college back at Crown, surrounded by people who were studying ministry as a career. I didn't really understand that, but there were a lot of things back then that I didn't understand, and many of my categories for things that I thought I understood were flawed. I didn't really believe that the degree of the ministry major was holier than the one I was going for, but I was lacking the experience needed to put it all into perspective.

I've now had two years of experience, and this is my perspective: my life is ministry & ministry is my life. 


These two things - life and ministry - have become so inseparable that I've come to believe they are one and the same. After years of cynicism and trying to draw lines for the sake of respect and tolerance, my life has finally been immersed into something whole: a vision that is greater than myself and cannot be carried out by only one person.

And this is the beautiful part, the part that really gets me and brings me to a state of worship every time I think about it: I've dedicated my life to the same vision Jesus saw before He was nailed to the cross, before He carried the ultimate and redemptive deed of this universe to completion. Jesus Christ saw the vision, and He gave up his life for it.

My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them. 

Jesus gave up his life so that others might know the Father, just like He knows that Father. He did not live His life for himself. 

I send out a daily email to the team. Over the years of ministry in Ximen, we have collected and continue collecting name after name of new friends, acquaintances and other connections here in Taiwan. Each day is designated with a different list people to pray for. I also include other things in the email, like Scripture, words of encouragement, special announcements. I really love doing it, and it keeps me writing something for other people each day. It also reminds me to pray.

Last Wednesday, I wrote these words:

Goals. Such a catch word these days. What's your goal? What's your purpose? What are you doing with your life? These questions can become so overwhelming and convoluted and then defeat the purpose all together. 

Fortunately, as people who belong to our Savior and as people on a ministry team here in Ximen Ding, we have a purpose, a clear-cut goal that drives us to do what we do. Let's hold on to the words of 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 today, words that so poignantly remind us of the most important thing: 

"For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that ONE died for all, and therefore all died. And HE died for all, that those who live should no longer  live for themselves but for HIM who died for them and was raised again."

The most important thing in my life has truly become THIS. From a practical point of view, THIS is being on a team of missionaries here in Ximen Ding and volunteering hours of my time in front of a computer screen, telling the world the story of what God is doing here through blog posts, videos and Facebook updates and designing documents and visual aids to spread the word here in Taiwan. From a more spiritual and abstract point of view, all the different strands of my life - friends, relationships, work, family, food, travel, running errands, studying Chinese, teaching English - are being woven together in this unimaginably compatible yet diverse pattern that is defining my every move. And the more I give myself to THIS, the more fulfilled I become. 

Ministry is draining, this is true. Life is draining! But the SOURCE is eternal. The SOURCE never runs out. The SOURCE is my God who created all things, and by His will they were created and have their being. I can truly say with all my heart that God is the fuel of my life, and I really can't imagine it any other way. I really can't imagine ministry without life, or life without ministry. THIS is my life.