Coming Off the Mountain Top

It's always hard coming back from a missions trip.  You've just had an incredible life changing experience, but everything back home is still the same.  Everything is going on just as it was when you left.  How can everything be the same after what I just experienced?!  How can people go on and live their lives like nothing happened after what I have seen, heard, and felt . . .  Well, that's my job.  I'm the one who had the experience, so it's my responsibility to be changed and and spread the word of what I saw and experienced to those who haven't experienced it with the hope that the testimony of my trip will inspire people to come closer to God, serve God better, support a missionary, or go on a missions trip and see for themselves how they can be changed.  Sometimes it's frustrating and hard to explain.  People who weren't there just cant understand.  Probably the most important part of a short-term missions trip is what you do when you come home.  The challenge is to not go back to the way things were once you come off the missions trip high.  The challenge is to stay close to God, share your experience with people, and live every single day at home with the same missions trip attitude from your trip.  It's so easy on the missions trip to get up and be excited thinking "Where will I go today? Who can I share Jesus with?  Who needs me to be Jesus in their life?  Who needs me to show them love today?"  On the missions trip it's easy to constantly be looking for what God's going to do next and where He can use you.  It's easy to jump right in, walk up to a stranger, try out some spanish, ... because you have the missions trip attitude.  This attitude says "I'm here to serve God and do great things for Him.  I'm expecting to see God move. Dear God, show me what you can do with me here.  Show me your power!"  Why is it so hard to have that attitude at home?  Our daily lives should be covered in the same prayer that we give to the week or so we're on a missions trip.  We should be ready and available for God to use every single day.  We need to be an example of Jesus wherever we are.  God has us where we are at this exact moment for our own special mission.  It may not be as exciting as leaving the country, but He has a plan.  He's waiting for you to lift up your hands in surrender at the beginning of each day and say to Him "Here I am, Lord.  Send me."