Updates and Uptakes

Here's the background on our tagline: "updates and uptakes from a missionary-in-training." I figure it will work for a lifetime, even if in 20 years I'm a career missionary with no (other) skills. The truth is, as Christians, we are always "in training." Until I get to Heaven, I'll never be what I was fully created to be.

Of course, there also won't be missionaries in Heaven. Active ones, I mean.

Anyway, on a whim I typed out "updates and uptakes from a missionary-in-training" and I really liked it.

Alliteration. It speaks to me.

Then I thought to myself, "I don't even know what "uptake" really means! It's not a word I often say. So I looked it up. And God is good:

up·take (ǔp

tāk

) n. 1. A passage for drawing up smoke or air. 2. Understanding; comprehension. 3. An act of taking in or absorbing, especially into a living organism.

So number 1 is a bit of a stretch, but I like it because I hope that on some level, this blog is a passage for drawing up wisdom, encouragement or inspiration, especially from God's Word and His Work. And God's word and work are even more important than air:

But I have made no use of any of these rights, nor am I writing these things to secure any such provision. For I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting. For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! (1 Corinthians 9:15-16)

For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. (Philippians 1:21)

And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. (John 20:22)

the LORD—knows the thoughts of man, that they are but a breath. (Psalm 94:11)

Number 2 is the most obvious: as I comprehend and understand our prefield journey, our missionary journey, Spanish, the Bible, God, ministry, culture and life, I'll bring it here - hopefully after I've lived it, "seasoned with salt."

But number 3 is my favorite definition. It is my hope that as I uptake in terms of understanding, I'll also absorb. I want this blog to go deeper than missionary musings, which it will surely be. When Paul said, "that you may know how you ought to answer each person," I don't think he meant "do the best you can." He meant, "Know the scriptures! Know God! Know His commands and His ways and acknowledge that they are higher than your ways, so that when you share, you share exactly what needs to be shared in order to most Glorify God."

For when I am glorifying God, that's when I will truly be a living organism.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. (Colossians 1:15-20)