In a few days I will be traveling with a group of people from my church to work at Mission Guatemala in the western highlands of Guatemala. This project was started a few years ago by my friend, Tom Heaton.  Tom has done an amazing job in a very short time in building trust and establishing the work of Mission Guatemala among the people near Lake Atitlán. Although I have heard many good things about the work of Mission Guatemala this will be my first time traveling there as well as my first short-term mission trip with people from St. Mark’s United Methodist Church, where I was appointed to serve as Lead Pastor one year ago. During the next ten days I will be sharing my experiences in Guatemala through this blog.

The next couple of days will primarily involve final preparations for the trip – making sure I finish what I need to at home and at the church, as well as finishing the always interesting job of packing. As well as figuring out what I am likely to need for the trip to physically pack, I have also discovered through the years that a venture like this involves a certain amount of emotional and spiritual packing (and unpacking) as well.

A couple of years ago I read a book by Jeffrey D. Jones called Heart, Mind, and Strength: Theory and Practices for Congregational Leadership (Herndon, VA: The Alban Institute, 2008).  In the book Jones writes:

It’s never about you.

It’s always about you.

We need to come to terms with these two seemingly conflicting realities if we are to be both effective and faithful leaders.

It’s never about you.  It’s about Christ and the church.  It’s about the way in which the system as a whole is functioning.  It’s about those you are called to serve.  It’s about the need of some people to focus their anxiety on someone or something.  It’s about the personal issues that well up and overwhelm.  It’s about the state of the world.  What happens to us as leaders stems from an array of issues and dynamics over which we have little or no control.  We get into trouble when we forget that.  We begin to take things personally or think that the reason we may be encountering resistance or not growing or finding ourselves unable to accomplish what needs to be done is that we aren’t skilled or knowledgeable or faithful enough.  But it’s never about us.

            It’s always about you.  You are Christ’s disciple.  You are part of the system and have an impact on it.  You have your own anxieties.  You have a personal life that shapes both your selfhood and your relationships.  You are touched by events in ways that influence your life and relationships.  What we accomplish as leaders depends on both our willingness and our ability to deal with whatever comes our way.  We get into trouble when we forget that.  We begin to think that we are victims or that the problem is “them.” But it’s always about us.  (Jones, 1-2)

 I have had a lot of occasions to think about these words in the past few years but especially in the past few days. Making a commitment to work on this kind of project is a reminder that it is not about me.  My role is to serve others and to be mindful of their needs.  To listen more than talk and to give myself completely to the leading of God’s spirit.

However, it is also about me in the sense that I have a responsibility to prepare myself spiritually and physically for the experience.  I have to leave behind things that might distract me and to bring along the expectation that there can be moments of divine epiphany if I am not too distracted to experience them.

And so, for the next few days I will be packing my suitcases for the journey. I will be looking over the preparation guide and packing list and hopefully I won’t forget anything that I will need along the way. And I will also be packing spiritually as I clear my mind of the things that might distract me from moments of serendipity.  Jesus once said, “For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’ But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear.” (Matthew 13:15-16, NIV)

May it be so!