I crept down the stairs, attempting to avoid the slightest creak or peep that might wake my friends and their toddler from their slumber. Planning for a quick, quiet departure, we had talked about leaving the door unlocked the night before. I didn’t like the idea of not locking the door, so I decided to lock it as I left. Gently, I pulled the door shut, walked to the car, and reached for my keys. The keys ……… the keys that were still on the table upstairs. My heart sank. I should have listened to that thought that said to just keep the door open. Now what? I hated the idea of waking my friends, especially their little girl.

I tried to call one cell phone but got no answer and no response to a text message. I could ring the doorbell, but that would be a shocking way to wake up the whole house. I’d have to do it, but first I’d try the second cell. Thankfully, she answered. I got my key and was off. However, I had caused some disruption in the process. Not part of the plan.

Recently, I wrote about the realization that we are not so different from some of the people we see as different from ourselves. This can be cross-culturally or even within our own culture. If you missed it, check it out here.

Maybe, as you read the blog, you noticed how pride, judgment, and a sense of superiority impacted the situation.  Problems in missions develop in the same way. Failing to listen to the voice of knowledge and understanding can leave us outside without the keys to get where we want to go.

Here are few ways this might play out: (i.e. This is how I’ve seen it in my life).

1. People become projects

I often hear it’s about the person, but is it really? Do we generally care for the other, as we do ourselves?  I remember leading some students out for evangelism outreaches and feeling embarrassed. They were not going to stop talking to the person until they accepted the Lord. I could only imagine how the person felt. The student didn’t allow them to speak or ask questions but made sure he knew he was a sinner, he could name the sins he had committed, and he needed God.

How did the student even know? She hadn’t given the person a chance to share a story. Have you been there? Maybe it’s been in another situation, but when pride and superiority rule, relationships are gone. People become projects or a means to an end.

2. Fail to recognize the gifting and beauty in others

I work in a ministry providing physical therapy services to people with disabilities in rural areas without access to these services. If I’m not careful, I focus on my work on them rather on the person. I miss getting to know their heart, dreams, desires, and the unique gifts God has placed in them.

This year I developed a seminar for a pastor’s conference on ministering to those with disability. To test the seminar out, we shared it with our rehabilitation promoters in Chichicastenango. Some were brought to tears as they realized they had been serving others out of pity instead of love.  Their hearts were awakened to the beauty in each of their patients. They looked for the unique gift God had placed in each one.

3. Miss the markers of eternity in that person or people group

 The Bible says that God has placed eternity in the heart of all men, but if I look back at some of the things I’ve shared on missions, you’d think I was the one bringing God to the people. He needed me. They needed me. How arrogant!

I’m hoping I’ve changed and become more of a learner and observer, looking for how God is already at work and joining in what He’s doing. I think a great example of this is in Don Richardson’s book Peace Child. (If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it).

Answering the call to Papua New Guinea, Richardson and his family, were quickly confronted with the foreign practices of the local people.  Many ran around half naked, used a language they did not understand, and had a strange custom of fattening people with friendship before the kill. The Sawi people were cannibals.

Richardson would have had justifiable reasons to remove his family. Did I mention they were cannibals? Though he didn’t understand this people or their apparent savage ways, he sought God and stayed. In time, God showed him a local custom that opened the door for them to share the gospel in a way that made sense to the people. He called it a redemptive analogy. His other book, Eternity in their Hearts, explains more about redemptive analogies and looking for what is already at place in the culture to share the truth of God in a way that the people will understand, just as He relates to each of us in the way He created us.

More examples abound of how this plays out, but the roots are the same.

How have you seen this in your own life? In the place where you are? What do you do to avoid these pitfalls?