Mission will mean getting upset

This week I have done the Live Below the Line challenge: £1 per person per day for food & drink for 5 days.  I did it partly for my own education, partly because I challenged my congregation to do it, but mostly to identify in some small way with the over 1 billion people who do not have the choice in the matter.

The day after, my system getting back to normal, I watched this film about the IF campaign - also on the subject of world hunger. At the end I found myself emotionally fatigued and crying. Not just because of the issue of world hunger, but also because of the broken people I had directly worked with and prayed for in the week.

That is the risk of identifying with people, and getting in amongst them (being incarnational, to use the technical jargon): we will get upset. God's mission cannot be done in a safe detached bubble - it gets alongside, it exposes, it shares the anguish.

Jesus did no less: Philippians 2:6f Jesus came among us, got alongside, exposed himself to the risks, shared the anguish (Jesus wept, longed for Jerusalem etc.). Mission will mean getting upset.