About five years ago, I received an email invitation to join a heart study with Johnson & Johnson and Apple. After making sure it was legit, I signed up and received a watch as part of the study. I agreed to give them tracking data on my heart and health. In turn, they gave me things to read about heart health and goals for exercise, rest, eating… you get the idea. Those little activity circles on my new watch became part of my daily routine. I was rewarded when I moved or exercised or was otherwise involved in activity (not sitting at a computer like I am now!). Thankfully, I had already been very regular in exercise. But having the watch to track my efforts helped make me more consistent. Now friends can track with me on Strava also (you can follow me there too!).

Our motives and motivations in missions are many and varied. Why do we pursue this and not that makes this a crucial part of our lives to ponder and evaluate. We have all found times when we did not accomplish all of what we believed the Lord wanted of us. Yet, he is patient, loving, and provides grace abundantly. Thankfully, he puts people and resources into our lives to help, like my watch is for exercise.

What are the routines of your life related to missions? How can you be more accountable to them? Like you, I want to be consistent in my prayer for the world. I want to help others catch a vision for the spread of the kingdom. I desire people to better understand how to more effectively share Jesus with the unreached. Yet, I know I have lots of other areas in my ministry and life to prioritize, which means one can push out another. My hope for you is that the ones which get pushed out are not always those that relate to the spread of the gospel. That can happen easily because 1) for most of us, they are beyond our day-to-day view of the world, and 2) the enemy of our souls doesn’t want us to give attention to such things.

The alarm on my phone and watch reminds me to pray at 8:38 am each day. (See Matthew 8:38 for what I am praying!). In 1981, we created the Global Prayer Digest (now part of each MF issue), which provides fuel for our daily missions prayer. It takes discipline and time to develop as a pattern. The Unreached Peoples of the Day app helps me do that. For many, it helps to build these into lives through relationships. Relationships with the lost around us and with believers who need to be mobilized toward involvement.

These goals are best accomplished when we have others who can check up on us and us on them. These are the people who give us permission to ask how it is going, as we do the same with them.

When I was working on my PhD, an older man in our church would often ask me how I was coming along. It helped motivate me to keep making progress. A very good friend and I often reflect on ideas together, and I bounce important decisions off of him and others. As an elder at my local church and one of the older mission leaders at events around the world, others ask me for advice on connections with others in missions. Just two weeks ago, I was with one of the global mission leaders I mentor, who told me a practical life suggestion I made a year ago had impacted his perspective. He created new habits in that area of discipline and was thankful for my words.

As readers of MF, you are already involved in global missions in many ways. Perhaps the best question for you to ponder is: Who can you help to further engage in our world? Consider how God has prepared and gifted you to fit into his kingdom service. Are there resources that might help? Perhaps it is related to prayer or learning from someone of a different culture. Perhaps it is related to giving of your time, gifts, and resources.

Finally, is there someone in your life who encourages you in your goals and challenges you when you don’t measure up? Are you doing that for others?