The God-Complex

One of the first lessons I learned about missions is that our purpose isn’t to “save people” from their hardships. As counterintuitive as it seems, we middle-class North Americans often lack anything of true value to give, except to engage in genuine relationships with those who are broken, just as we are. In these relationships, we can experience and share the love of Jesus in a meaningful community.

It’s easy to see ourselves as the ones who “have,” believing we must share our resources to improve others' lives or fix their situations. Yet, I’ve discovered repeatedly that people living in challenging conditions—on mountainsides in mud and thatch homes, farming on steep, eroded land, walking through jungles for water, using latrines, and having only one pair or no pairs of shoes—can be remarkably peaceful and joyful, often more so than I am. This doesn’t diminish the difficulties they face; rather, it highlights that material wealth doesn’t equate to inner peace or strong faith in God. So who are we, with our material advantages, to assume we have the answers for those who are materially poor, believing we can “fix” their problems?

When I’m on mission trips, I often feel out of place—struggling with language barriers, unable to grind corn for tortillas, or figuring out how to wash my clothes in a cement basin. One time I went on a water project with Agua Viva based out of Minnesota. Part of the task was to work along-side the Honduran men to dig a trench from the high point of the mountain down to the community and lay PVC pipe for a water system. Each swing of my pickaxe was worth about 5 of my Honduran partner’s—I was literally more of an obstacle than a help.

This experience taught me that we often overestimate our knowledge and ability to assist. The people we serve are not inferior; they possess incredibly valuable skills and gifts, and they have inherent worth because they are made in the image of God. Sometimes our role is to reveal their dignity through our own lack of understanding. That’s humbling.

However, this doesn’t absolve us of the responsibility to address the material needs of the poor. As James 2:15-16 says, “If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?” Our faith must be accompanied by actionable deeds in service of the Kingdom. It just requires some intentional prayer and discernment to know the right way to help.

So why do we go? The purpose of VBM trips is to embody the Kingdom of God through healthy, right relationships—with God, ourselves, others, and creation. We proclaim truth in both word and deed. This is God’s plan for reconciling all things to Himself.

We are not anyone’s savior—God is. In fact, we need a savior just as much as anyone else, sometimes from our own God complex.