Today some of our best friends are leaving the country. Maggie and I said goodbye to this family a month ago when they moved to the east coast to prepare for their move, but today they get on the jet and fly to their new home in the middle east. These friends are moving because they care deeply for the Palestinian people, many who have fled their homes and now live as refugees. They hope to find creative ways to serve and advocate for the Palestinian people as they live out their conviction that God loves all people.

These are not the first of our friends who we’ve had to say goodbye to as they move in order to pursue God’s mission of reconciliation in our world. And you know what? It sucks every time.

Really. I don’t like it.

But, I get it. While it can be easy to forget, Christians are a sent people. It’s tough to remember because we label certain people as “missionaries” who are sent somewhere else. These are the people who “do” the work of God’s mission while the rest of us… what? Stay? The problem with only viewing missionaries as the sent ones is that it muddies up what it means to be a Christian.

What I have appreciated about our friends who are leaving today is that they have always described this move as a natural part of what it means for them to pursue Christ. They certainly don’t see themselves as inherently different than the rest of their Christian family.

Another problem with associating being sent on mission as being something that missionaries do is that we miss the beautiful and risky mission that we’ve each been invited into. Author Leslie Newbigin has been particularly helpful in helping me to see how following Christ implicitly means we are a people involved in God’s mission. There can be no separation between Christians who do mission and those who don’t, only a distinction in how and where the mission lived.

Our middle east-bound friends get this. From Chicagoland they were deeply involved in hospitality, justice for the poor and Gospel proclamation, all beautiful examples of God’s mission. In some ways this move is simply a change of scenery that allows them to live with people they care deeply for.

It does suck that our friends are leaving tomorrow, but I’m glad they are. Not only will their new Palestinian friends benefit from this move but I get a regular reminder that I too am sent.