If I Were Satan

If I were Satan…this is how I would attack missionaries.

If I were Satan I’d get missionaries to teach nice things about a nice God. I’d make sure they avoided the dangerous God of the Bible. I would have them preach Jesus as a “tame kitty” and not as Aslan of Narnia.

If I were Satan I would try to wear the missionary out with issues surrounding language and cultural acquisition. I would try to make sure they were so frustrated with those things that they would give up on learning good Spanish (or English) and go back to their birth culture within four to five years. I would tell them they could be more effective there… and then break them with discouragement at having “failed” when they go back to those countries!

If I were Satan I’d undermine the missionary’s confidence in the Word of God. I’d get him or her to start believing in the latest fad or program of Christianity rather than returning again and again to the wealth found in the Scriptures.

If I were Satan I’d want to make sure that missionaries looked at every example and model except the model of Jesus. If I could can keep them looking at the latest missiological trends rather than going back to that “old-hat” stuff about Jesus I think I could keep them from making a profound and permanent difference in people’s lives.

If I were Satan I would get missionaries to do one of two things: First, I would get them to so idealize their birth culture that they could not adjust to their host culture; or, I would get them to idealize their host culture and criticize their birth culture. Either way I would make them angry and frustrated and incapable of sharing the message they went to share.

If I were Satan I’d convince missionaries to stay stuck in their old ways. I’d challenge them to not think outside the box when it comes to the way they communicate to this next-generation of leaders.

If I were Satan I’d especially attack missionaries in areas related to their intimate lives. I would get them to feel so lonely they would seek comfort in chat rooms and pictures or videos on the internet that imitate real intimacy. After all, if I could keep missionaries from developing healthy intimacy how would they help others develop intimacy with God?

If I were Satan I’d convince missionaries they don’t need accountability from their co-workers. I’d persuade them that they needed to keep up the image of perfection and not be honest about their inner struggles. I’d convince them to avoid baring their deepest spiritual battles, hurts and sins to a close, co-worker whom they trust.

If I were Satan I’d convince missionaries they had to do everything. I’d challenge them to keep busy with busyness in order to justify the support they are receiving. The last thing I would want them to realize and embrace is that their primary responsibility is to first be a disciple and then to make disciples.

If I were Satan I’d encourage missionaries to believe the lie that all conflict is bad. I would make them run from sincere, legitimate differences of opinion with their co-workers.

If I were Satan I’d attack the writer of these words with his own inadequacies. I’d remind him of every time he has messed up and failed. I’d show him his own hypocrisy. I’d convince him that he had no right to write judgmental words. I’d challenge him to take the kinder, gentler course of typing safe, funny things. If that didn’t work I’d convince him that he is somehow better than any his own struggling missionaries.

(With sincere compliments to Greg Stier who once wrote something similar for Pastors and to Paul Harvey who years ago aired a segment on his radio program called, “If I Were the Devil.”)