by Sarah Bragg

What does it mean to live missionally? Does it mean to give away everything you possess and live on the street? Does it mean you need to move to a foreign country? I think that sometimes we cross “living missionally” off our to-do list because we think it requires us to move far away or that it requires us to do something big, like selling all we possess.

And since most students aren’t allowed to just pick up and move on their own, it feels irrelevant to them. It feels like that calling is for somebody else. Yet the Bible is absolutely relevant to all of us, including students. You see, to live missionally simply means to live with an outward focus. And the last time I checked you don’t have to move away in order to be outward focused. You can live that way at 16 or 61.

In my book, Body. Beauty. Boys., I try to remove the veil from our eyes to see that God intentionally created each of us unique and to find contentment in those areas. The focus God’s plan, story, and purpose for each of us is to love God and love others. God desires for us to choose to collide with the people of this world.

I use the word collide because it’s not natural for us to think about others. It’s not natural for us to be outward focused. We have to force a collision. It’s easy to go through our day and not see the world around us. It’s easy to pass by people who are in need because we have so many other all-consuming things happening.

To be honest, I think that most of us are afraid to collide. We fear what others will think of us. We fear what it might cost us. We fear what we may lose if we think outside ourselves.

But what would happen if you laid your fears aside? How would your life and relationships be different if you lived with an outward focus?

Body

How could God use your body? Maybe you could use the times you exercise to pray for others. Maybe you could ask a friend to run with you because you know they need God and it would give you a way to talk to them. Maybe you could just take the focus off of how many calories you need to burn and think about giving thanks to God for the body He gave you.

Beauty

How about your beauty? Maybe you could purchase beauty products and give them to a local charity rather than keep them for yourself. There are even organizations that collect beauty products in order to give to girls rescued from sex trafficking. Or maybe every time you gaze in a mirror, you could pray for young girls around the world who need God.

Boys

And finally, what about boys? Maybe you could trust God enough to allow Him to use your singleness rather than spend your time trying hard to get a guy to notice you. You have more time to give to serving others when you are single than when in a relationship. You could sign up to serve on Sunday mornings in the children’s department or you could have time to go on the summer missions trip.

God created you to be a part of His story. No one enjoys a movie or book with a dull story. We want a story to inspire us, to move us. The same is true with you. God desires to do something great in you. He desires for you to begin to see yourself the way He sees you and to grab hold of the purpose for which He created you.

Sarah Bragg has worked with students in ministry for more than 10 years and worked in full-time student ministry for 6 years. Sarah also spent several years creating, developing, and writing a student strategy and curriculum called XP3 Students for Orange at the reThink Group. She speaks regularly to large audiences of teen girls, singles, and women’s audiences in church settings, at schools, at retreats, and at conferences.