Finding Purpose in the Big City

Written by Justin - Serving in Germany & Prague

Romans 10:13-15 says, “for, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’”

I was recently chatting with a friend who expressed frustration over not being able to openly share the good news due to serving in a closed country. I shared with her something God’s been teaching me over the past year: ministry, service, purpose… it’s not one size fits all. Sometimes this looks like boldly and openly proclaiming the Gospel. Sometimes it’s serving coffee with a smile to a grumpy lady you’ll never see again. Sometimes it’s trying your best to answer someone’s questions about Christianity clearly, biblically, and compassionately. Sometimes it’s working in the back of a library all day hoping God will reveal himself to someone through a book you put on the shelf.

Library work often consists of “mundane” tasks like moving books, taping labels, and editing electronic records. As a detail oriented introvert, I find purpose in such work and have loved serving the Berlin and Prague libraries in this way. God has shown me on this trip that my work supports and creates opportunities for those serving in more visible ministries in some pretty cool ways.

One day at the Berlin library, I was moving books when I overhead a conversation between the missionaries and two guys about my age who were trying to figure out God’s will for their lives. They were anxious to make “correct choices” and follow God’s purpose for their lives. On the opposite end of the spectrum, I had several conversations in the library with a woman who had barely left her apartment for four years and felt like her life had no direction. We started reading through “The Purpose Driven Life” with her, gently encouraging her to fill that void with Christ.

Or even last week, we watched a couple of Prague Shakespeare Company productions to support relationships founded in the library. A few days before, we’d struck up a conversation with a young woman from California who considered herself a “somethingist” (i.e., some higher power exists), and she ended up inviting us to see her in Romeo and Juliette. Hopefully pursuing that connection will lead more traveling actors to the Prague library. We also saw a friend of the missionaries in Hamlet who has been wrestling to reconciling career and faith, and we were able to encourage her by supporting her God-given talent for acting.

It all comes back to purpose: the little purposes in gifts, career, and lifestyle, and our overarching purpose, glorifying God. There’s something so beautiful in the fact that God does not need us, yet chose to involve us in proclaiming his name across the world. I’m just a college kid trying to figure my life out, and I get to serve him this summer with my love of language and libraries.