Burning Bridges
I’ll never forget the response I got when I told my professor I was considering leaving academia to work for OMF. “Are you absolutely sure, John? There’s probably no coming back if you do this.”
It’s not like he was the first person to question why I was wasting an opportunity at an MIT lab to go do something so…trivial. But there was something about his interrogation that forced me to address the near-finality of my decision. Academia is notoriously harsh on prodigals trying to return from other fields. I wasn’t just about to burn a bridge; I was about to carpet-bomb my career.
Armed with the hubris (uh, I mean faith!) of youth, I pressed forward, reckoning that God could always resurrect a crucified career. Besides, who am I to define things like success and importance? If God was opening this door, then I just needed to step through it.
5 Minute Read
By John Hawke
Stress and Missionary Retention
Roughly 6.5% of missionaries leave the field every year. While this seems like a low amount, it does equate to roughly half of all missionaries leaving within the first decade. Throw in the fact that over 70% leaving for “preventable” reasons, and you’re left with the statistic that 1/3 of all missionaries will leave within their first decade for reasons that could have been prevented. Which tells me that regret among missionaries seems pretty high.
I read about an interesting study on stress among missionaries that suggested that missionaries sustain an enormous level of ongoing stress, strongly indicating “a major life crisis that is highly predictive (80%) of serious physical injury in the next 2 years. Other parts of the study suggested that roughly 40% of missionaries suffer from depression—a number roughly 500% higher than that of the general U.S. population.
Put them together, and what do you get? A whole lot of burned out, disillusioned (ex-) missionaries.
1/3 of all missionaries will leave within their first decade for reasons that could have been prevented.
My Own Regrets as a Missionary
In my case, it wasn’t until my third year working with OMF when my internal narrative changed. “YAY, I’m on mission for God!!” slowly devolved more and more until it hit “Well, this was the biggest mistake of my life.”
At least for a time, I couldn’t go more than a few hours without returning to a soul-crushing feeling of inescapable regret. That I really had wasted all of my potential. That I never should have left family and friends. That at the end of the day, nothing I was doing mattered. At all. Even today, many of these ideas still come back to haunt me, albeit slightly less frequently.
Do I think I was being obedient to God in becoming a missionary? Yes. Are there days when I regret that decision, especially when things are difficult? Also, yes. Will a piece of me always regret that decision? Probably. Does that make me a bad Christian or a bad missionary? I’ve been told as much. By other missionaries, no less.
The (un?)spoken assumption in our missions culture is that “good” missionaries shouldn’t feel regret. After all, admitting to feelings of regret isn’t just a sign of personal weakness. It’s a sign of your lack of faith in God. And if that feels like a time bomb of emotional health, I’d like to refer you again to all the stats above.
Faith and Regret
I think this leads us to an inescapable question. Does having regret (especially about something as “spiritual” as being “called into missions”) imply that I somehow don’t have enough faith or trust in God? I think the “Wisdom Literature” of books like Psalms and Job speak powerfully to this. We even have an oft-forgotten book about laments, so no, I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong about feeling regret (or stress, or shame, or burnout, or whatever).
What we decide to do with those feelings can lead to all kinds of problems and sin. If that regret is causing us to turn from Christ, act in disobedience, or otherwise sin, then, yes, that’s certainly a problem. I would argue such problems arise when we handle regret improperly, not because we have it in the first place.
Granted, his statement comes from a different context, but I still like John Piper’s quote that “a life without regrets is built on a mirage.”
I also appreciate his conclusion in referencing Philippians 3:13-14:
…forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
So what do we even begin to do with this information? I’ll write to a few different audiences.
If you support missionaries:
Communicate your desire to hear about the “hard stuff” they’re going through. And reassure them what they say won’t cause you to suddenly drop their support.
I’ve tried to get into the habit of asking missionaries the question, “what do you wish you could communicate to others? Like, if you didn’t have to put on a good face?” I can’t begin to tell you the amazing conversations that has opened. We absolutely need more people to be a safe place for missionaries.
If you’re considering going:
Whether you feel called to go for a few weeks or a lifetime, please don’t let feelings of doubt or regret “disqualify” you in your mind. After all, it only takes a mustard seed of faith to move mountains.
If you do find yourself in this boat, we’d love to talk! Drop us your info and we’ll connect you with a ministry coach.
If you’re a missionary feeling regret:
Find ways to talk about it. You may not feel able to talk about it with supporters, local friends, or even your mission agency, but you need to find someone. Don’t be afraid to have that initial conversation of “hey, I know this might be awkward, but…”
Learning to Live with Regrets
At least for myself, I’ve found it helpful to simply accept that I regret certain decisions, both good and bad, and then quickly move on in life in obedience to Christ. But treating it with the flagellation commonly attached in mission circles does a great deal of harm to missionary health.
John has almost a decade of missions experience at OMF (U.S.) as a mobilizer-data analyst-coder-teacher-writer. His passions include running, satire, coding, board games, mobilizing the American church and medium-length walks on the beach.
Thank you for this article. This is a necessary topic. Blessings
I think it is also true that sometimes while a person may have had every intention of being a life long missionary, over the course of time things in and beyond their control combine to cause them to leave the field – causing shame, doubt, and depression as well. Sometimes when we have expectations of ourselves or others have them of us, we try to go beyond what God has for us. Missionaries need safe places to share the hard things and safe people from which to receive wise and gentle counsel from as well – not just Christian truisms… Read more »
Burnout! It certainly happens and not enough is done to talk about it, its consequences and after effects. As a young high school teacher I burnout on the mission field after 7 years of giving service. I came home only to be reassigned another field and in due course another one on which I currently serve. I am now in my 60s living on an inner city low socio economic community and working as a commercial cleaner. The people I live with are not highly educated and more often than not experiencing addiction. Their cognitive skills are marginal. This is… Read more »
Thank you for this article. I was a teacher for 28 years, and I always thought of it as a mission rather than a career. Looking at it that way involves a different level of commitment, a different set of motivations. I’m relieved to read in your article that missionaries sometimes regret having been missionaries. One can feel guilty about having mixed emotions in regard to one’s perceived mission. I’m grateful for having had the opportunity to serve, and I acknowledge the battle damage my life has sustained as a result of this mission along with the good that was… Read more »
Thank you for this article John, and thank you all who commented about it! I am a licensed professional counselor who is newly commissioned as a missionary with MissionGO to serve as Director of Missionary Counseling. I am in the deputation phase now and am so looking forward to becoming full-time with providing missionaries a safe place to talk and heal! You all have given me great information and I deeply appreciate it!
Ruth Long LPC
John, thank you for this article. Do you have a twitter or some form of social media I can follow you on?
[…] Overseas Missionary Fellowship (which was begun as the China Inland Mission by the great Hudson Taylor) tells us that 6.5% of […]
As a missionary in South Asia, we see this a lot and we all need to help missionaries as best we can. It’s a hard place and without help newbies rarely make it more than a year or 2. With so may leaving the field early, friends of ours created an actual place and ministry that missionaries can learn, stay, process regrets and address this issue in South Asia. For me personally, everyday there seems to be an element of regret for me and my family. St. Paul likens us to athletes…think about how many regrets an athlete has even… Read more »