Being Stripped.

A couple of nights ago, I had the unique but awesome opportunity to Skype with two of my fellow missionaries (and sisters in Christ). Anna, who is a first year serving at Mizzou, and Lauren, who is a fellow Thunderbolt and first year serving at Pittsburgh. It was so great to catch up with them and to just take a deep breath and be able to laugh and just be with friends who fully understand first year missionary life.

As we were catching each other up on how team life is going, the amazing girls we get the privilege to work with and what is going on at our campuses, we all paused. We were all thinking the same thing, "So how is it really going?" Although all of the previous things we mentioned were true, we all knew there was more to be said. Then Lauren dropped a truth bomb. She said, "Some days I wonder what it would be like to have a normal job. To come home after you've put in your day's work and just check out on the couch. I wonder what it would be like to actually feel like I've accomplished something or to be able to check off one thing on my ten-page long to-do list.

But that's not what we signed up for. 

We signed up to be a part of a mission (or rather a Commission) that never ends. We signed up for a "job" that isn't a job, it is a life. We signed up to give up normality. We signed up to leave the comfort of our homes, a state we so dearly love and friends we've grown so close with to serve on a campus where we are literally no one. No one knows we were the president of this or that. No one knows we were homecoming royalty. No one knows who we dated or what sorority we were in and frankly, I don't think anyone really cares. Anything and everything we ever identified ourselves with that wasn't Our Lord Jesus Christ was stripped away from us the day we got the title "missionary for Christ."

Being a missionary means being stripped, similar to the way Christ was stripped during His Passion. Everything was taken away besides the very essence of His Being. We are being stripped of the comforts of the world. We are stripped of our identity in anything other than who we are at our core. We are stripped of all the ways we've ever thought the world could satisfy us--then we are left weak. Standing at the foot of the cross, at the foot altar, in front of the Eucharist crying out, "Lord, I can't do this anymore."

And that is exactly where He wants us. 

He's been waiting for you to just ask Him for His help all along. 

"For my power is made perfect in weakness." 

                                     2 Corinthians 12:9

He wants so badly to build us up into this incredible palace of His love. But usually it takes so long for us to get down on our knees and admit our weakness. Missionary life is not a normal one, that's for sure. Is it rewarding? You wouldn't even believe the small rewards I receive on a daily basis. Is it worth it? No doubt about it. We are all on this earth to become saints and help the people around us become saints. Every day we have the chance to take one step closer to sainthood. What are you doing today to become a saint? What are you doing to help the person next to you become a saint?

stay beautiful my friends. 

hms.