Overcoming Discouragement

Sometimes, being a Mercy Missionary is like being in a boxing ring with discouragement. The experience has its highs and lows, or it hits you where it hurts and you have to punch it back. Discouragement is an experience we all face in our lives, but as a missionary feeling this has deeper repercussions in our world. It affects the souls of our friends on the street. 

The gravity of discouragement as a missionary has often led to many fruitful discussions within the Mercy Mission program. We share our thoughts about, “what’s the point if they are addicted and just keep using” or “are they even grasping anything from these encounters” or “are we just making it worse” or blaming the government for their lack of support. At the end of these discussions we remind each other of some very key points. 

First, discouragement is from the enemy! The evil one doesn’t want us to do the work of spreading God’s love on the streets. If we feel discouraged, we won’t go out or even have Christ’s light in our faces and hearts. Discouragement is due to a lack of faith and hope. It is important to remember to have faith in God that He can do absolutely anything. He is all powerful. With God’s power, we hope in what God can do rather than hoping in ourselves and what we can do for them or what they can do for themselves. 

Second, have low expectations and high hopes! We remind them and hope that they will see themselves as beloved children of God, because amazing things begin to happen when we see this as our true identity. Expect that they won’t be able to do it without God. And hope that God working through us will enkindle the love God has for them and motivate them to receive God’s grace to glorify Him through their life. 

Third, we remind ourselves of our goal: to show them the love God has for each one of them as His beloved children. Our goal is NOT to convince them to stop using or that they need to go into housing, etc. We may be the only representation of God’s love they encounter for the day, week, month, or ever. So we rely on God and not on ourselves, nourishing ourselves with prayer, community, and the sacraments to be able to go out and reflect God’s light. 

Fourth, we remember that we do not know the full fruits of the seeds we sow, or the good that we do. We can also change our perspective on the fruits we expect to see. Sometimes we expect to see changes in our friends on the streets, when in reality, real fruit is also growing in us. Our hearts change to be more loving, hopeful, and courageous in evangelization. It is also important to know that we may not be the only ones sowing seeds or watering. There is teamwork involved in reflecting God’s love. A friend on the street may have experienced God’s love from someone before us or is going to experience it again after us. The moment we have with our friends on the street may be a seed we plant or us watering a seed that someone already planted, and God makes it grow to fruition. 

Ultimately, we are simply instruments and it is God that does the work. It's not fully on us to help our friend on the street. Through our encounter, we show the deep love God has for our friends, and remind them of their true identity as beloved children of God.

~Gabriel Marcelo