Being a senior in high school, pretty much everyone asks me where I want to go to college. I’ve known for a while now that I want to go to a missions school, and that usually makes people ask even more questions.
I went to a conference a couple months ago, and a friend of mine started asking me where I wanted to college and what I wanted to study. When I told him that I wanted to be a missionary he asked me a really interesting question. He asked me why I wanted to be a missionary. Right of the top of my head, I said, “So I can spread the gospel.” But then he clarified his question a little more. He wanted to know why I wanted to share the gospel.
At the time, I really didn’t have a good answer for him. That doesn’t mean, however, that I stopped thinking about it. I spent a good couple days trying to figure out why. My conclusion was that I love people. I’ve spent enough time observing other people, and myself, to know that a relationship with Christ will change your life for the better, and forever. I wanted to go through life showing people the love I’ve felt from Christ, and showing them how they can have a relationship with Him.
A tricky thing about Christianity is that may NOT make this life better. It may make this life feel full of work, pain, and frustration. The real value of Christianity is the relationship with God and eternal life. So while this life may be full of miserable experiences, knowing that God is there and will make everything right brings a LOT of peace. Knowing that there will be a time when *everything* is made right can make it all worth it.