For those of you who don’t know, I’m currently in the Air Force. I’ve been in for over 9 years now and will be promoted to Major at the end of January. I’ve recently made the decision to get out of the Air Force and enter the ministry full-time. I will be working with the excellent folks at Adventures in Missions and G42, led by Andrew Shearman and Seth Barnes. I should be joining them by Fall 2008.
The military, even if it doesn’t pay much, has some nice perks. One of those perks is a nice pension and health care for life once you retire (after 20 years). The reaction that I most get from my co-workers after I tell them what I am doing is “YOU’RE DOING WHAT?!?!” For the most part, all they see is me throwing away an easy life, and all I have to do is put in 10 more years.
What I then get to explain to them is the amazing opportunity that I have: I have the priviledge of working for the Kingdom of Christ Jesus. I have the amazing calling of working for the creator of the universe! I will be feeding orphans and widows, spreading the love and message of Jesus, showing others the gift of abundant life, and training the next generation to become pastors, christ-like business and community leaders, and Warriors for the cause.
I am not worried about losing free health care, an assured job, and the comfort and ease of a life that I simply let play around me. Instead, I am grabbing life by the horns, stepping out of my comfort zone, and living life as a radical; emulating Jesus in all that I do, preaching the gospel and making a difference in my generation and the next, and the next, and the next, …