An EZ Pass to Heaven?

“What? You don’t get paid?!” (Wide eyes)
“No.”
“What? Are you trying to secure your place in Heaven or something?”


This was a short conversation between a coworker and I after I told him about doing mission work in Belize. Although I know he was just making a passing comment, I found that it made for a great reflection. (I apologize if this reflection gets a bit confusing because there are elements of Salvation Theology that could factor in and Catholic/Protestant controversial ideas about faith and good works. I am not trying to delve much into that, just to reflect on Mission Work and what God thinks.) Soteriology (Theology of Salvation) aside, can we really “impress” God and guarantee our place in Heaven? I would argue an emphatic NO. Obviously, Jesus opened the gate to Heaven through His suffering on the cross, so He makes it possible for me to get to Heaven. Yet, as my good friend said the other day, God loves us the same---always. He loves us the same if we are sitting out by a pool or if we are working for the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta. His love does not change based on what we are doing. However, our works affect the way in which we love him and whether or not we please Him or wound Him. I believe that He is pleased when we follow His will and we comfort His heart in this. When we turn from His will or rebel against His will (sin), we wound Him and we turn away from Heaven. But we do not “impress” God with our good deeds, so to speak. We become more like Him through good acts and service, but He does not open the back door to Heaven because we shined His good-deeds or mission-work apple.

I was unable to properly answer my coworker when he made that comment. The answer, however, is: “No, I am not volunteer teaching in order to secure a spot in Heaven.” Is my goal in life to make it to Heaven? Yes. But I am doing mission work because I believe God wants me to and because I want to. I am doing it in order to pour myself out and to share the love of Christ. I’m not forcing myself to do it because I “should” or to appear as a “do-gooder”, a persona I find particularly frustrating. I could serve God here at home in the United States and God would still love me and I could still get to Heaven. If people only did mission work to impress God or out of a concept of “duty” or because it made them feel good about themselves, it would be a dangerously shallow and selfish field. Mission work/volunteer work needs to go beyond this mentality.

It doesn’t help that many high schools and the world view in general teaches us to do volunteer work because “it will look good on your transcript” and “will help make you more competitive when applying to college”. This mentality, though can help students get involved, is flawed. This is because its core motivation is selfish---“What will this volunteering get ME? It will buff up my transcript/resume and make me look better than other students or potential employees.” Now, don’t get me wrong. Plenty of people volunteer for beautiful and selfless reasons and simply because they care. This is not what I am talking about. I’m criticizing the worldy approach to volunteering. I fell into it when I was younger. I would think about all the externals of a transcript and might think about volunteering as a nice sparkle on my transcript or to fulfill duty to the human race. Luckily, I eventually learned the beauty of volunteering beyond selfish or mixed motivation.
And so, mission work to me is not a sparkle on my application to Heaven. It is something that I believe will purify my heart, help me to better live out my faith, challenge me, require sacrifice, and allow me a place and people to whom I can give of myself.

Most people are wonderfully supportive of my “eccentric” choice of work for the next ten months. However, there are a few that simply don’t get it. A year ago, I would never have pictured myself doing mission work in Belize for ten months either. I would have said it was impractical and naive for me because of my student loan debt and because I never saw myself doing mission work abroad. Yet, here I am! (“How do you make God laugh? Tell him your plans!”)

So when my confused friends ask me, “Why would you do that? You don’t get paid?!” “What will you get out of it?” I suppose my answer is, “I don’t know exactly and to be honest, I’m not worried about it.” :)