People are, by nature, creatures of association. This is one reason branding is so successful as a tool for marketing. Why do we feel a confidence boost when wearing Adidas rather than Target brand shoes? Or sit at the “cool” table in the cafeteria instead of another? We subconsciously assume our own value (as well as other’s) by what and who we “endorse”.
Last year, I had a dilemma; I knew I was supposed to go on a mission trip through my Christian college, but I honestly didn’t want to. I had been going through a phase of disillusionment with the institution of Christianity as a whole, including my college and its Missions Department.
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Being a Christian has become like a brand and people will assume things about me because of the label. Furthermore, the mistakes, faults, or hypocrisies of others who share the same label become indirectly attached to myself. The more I become aware of the flaws and shortcomings of Christianity in the States (its culture and outcomes), the more I want to pull away from it. This is called disassociation.
In the same way, humans attach themselves to external sources of value. We disassociate from those that serve the opposite purpose. Shame, embarrassment, and inferiority are considerable reasons that cause one to begin disassociating from a person or thing. Therefore we avoid the “un-cool” table in the cafeteria or refuse to buy clothes from Wal-Mart.
Here’s the catch – while God allowed me to see all kinds of imperfections and shortcomings in my college and its mission department, I received the same direction.
Chelsea, Go.
I had one hundred “but…” statements ready, if not more.
But short-term missions can often be harmful.
But I need to be more involved locally before I go overseas.
But this will just cultivate the “white savior” complex in people.
Yet, God was challenging me to go; though I just wanted to disassociate from my college and its missions mayhem. I did not want any part of it. And then the lightbulb went off in my head. God did not want me to go on the trip because its perfect, but because it imperfect.
I assumed that before something was deserving to wear God’s “label”, it had to be near perfect first. It's easy to disassociate from something and look down on others in a self-righteous attitude. But rather than judge from a distance, God challenged me to get my hands messy; to jump right into the middle of something I already viewed as flawed.
One of the greatest things I learned on my short-term missions trip was how many ways things can go right and how God works in miraculous and mysterious ways.
I exited my last flight so humbled by the great ways God worked in that trip despite its imperfections.
I am so thankful God does not scrap something simply because it is imperfect, or we should all be worried.
I went into the trip believing it was flawed, and of course it is. But I came back home realizing I am just as flawed.
Rosa Parks name is famous in U.S. history. Why? She was part of the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955, but she is remembered for other reasons. She is remembered because a few days before the boycott began, Parks boarded a bus and took a seat reserved at the front of the bus for white passengers. Her statement was not made in her disassociation from the bus system, but her firm stance in the midst of it.
I want to illustrate the point that God asks us to intimately engage in the things we want to see change in the most. This presents a challenge, because human tendency is to disassociate and separate from anything that poses a threat to one’s reputation. But I think God challenges us to step right into the middle of messiness, not run from it.
I was determined to run from short-term missions with my college out of contempt. But God challenged me to get right in the middle of the very thing I was criticizing and He used it to shatter the little boxes I had been trying to fit God into.
Is there something you have conveniently disassociated yourself from because you don’t think its worth your time in its messy state?
Maybe you should try jumping right into the middle of it with an open mind and see what happens!
