What Perseverance in Risk Does Not Look Like
“Fight for joy with everything you have.”
-Anna Hampton, Facing Fear, Kl 5467
It is not over-reacting to every challenge…while in crisis.
It is not chronic yelling at the family.
It is not treating locals kinder than family members.
It is not habitually living life out of control…emotionally, physically, mentally.
It is not thinking you are exempt from asking for forgiveness for rudeness.
It is not regularly not taking personal time for soul renewal.
It is not living without new limits while in crisis.
It is not living without eternal perspective.
It is not living without laughing, even while in crisis.
It is not a consistently joyless home and ministry life.
It is not living as a martyr or victim.
It is not seeing every trial as from our enemy.
It is not habitually making assumptions about people and events.
It is not continually making statements instead of asking questions.
It is not choosing not to grow through crisis, not becoming a softer, gentler, person.
It is not seeing everything as a crisis.
It is not a rushing about roughly.
It is not majoring in the minors.
It is not a lack of recognizing one’s lack of emotional awareness
It is not being quick to take offense.
It is not constant talking and dominating every conversation.
It is not trying to control every situation and person.
It is not lacking the ability to delegate the workload in crisis
It is not avoiding to try to live a balanced life, even while in crisis.
It is not swearing.
It is not not listening to others.
It is not “one-upping,” disagreeing, or “adding to,” what others say.
It is not avoiding creating a place of refuge for oneself and others.
It is not choosing to not see God’s presence and actions within crisis
It is not living life so fast one forgets to say, “please” and “thank you.”
It is not deriding and criticizing other staff when not in their presence.
It is not assuming the worst of a situation, of someone, or of someone’s intention.
It is not sheer gutting it out and staying in a crisis situation, characterized with chronic gracelessness.
It is not drinking too much, eating too much, narcotizing yourself in whatever form.
Do any of these describe you?
Living chronically like any of the statements above does:
Very little to further God’s kingdom of love. It is not the kind of perseverance taught in the Bible.
It does not exemplify growing into God’s image, into Christ-likeness.
Damage to one’s family, future generations, as well as obstructs His love reaching locals in unreached places.
“Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered,”
“Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
Some addition helpful resources:
“If” by Amy Carmichael, a missionary to India for 50 years. She addresses daily behaviors and attitudes in missionary life.
The CSA by CernySmith. It’s a stress management assessment and helps a person measure how they are doing. It examines aspects like Resiliency, Decision Making, Optimism, Stress Management, Spiritual Life, Habits, Physical Health, and much more. This is a helpful tool for workers to see how they are really doing, especially when measured against a baseline CSA taken pre-field or at a lower-stress time.
SYIS - The Sharpening Your Interpersonal Skills workshop, geared to global workers, is also a significant tool to train personnel in better standards of behavior for on-field work.
….It is possible to live and BE an oasis of grace in the middle of crisis.
