I Came to X as a Mission Field. Here's What I Learned.

I originally started posting on X because I saw it as a mission field.

It occurred to me that the Greek letter CHI is expressed as the letter X, especially in the early Christian world. CHI is the first letter of Christos, which is Christ. Early Christians used it as shorthand for his name.

This is actually how we got the term Xmas. Many think that’s disrespectful, like removing Christ from Christmas. But it’s not disrespect, it’s history.

So when I thought about the platform X and its reputation as the global town square, I thought it would be a unique opportunity to simply tell others the story of what God has done for me.

I spent a year posting on X every day, most of the time multiple times a day. But I slowly found myself pumping out more motivational content like many others on X.

Then this past weekend, X implemented real-time translation with Japan, where English speakers can now see posts from Japan in English.

It doesn’t sound like a big deal, but it’s huge.

It opened up a whole new world of a super-engaged user base that none of us really knew about. I saw several posts from Japanese Christians talking about how wonderful it’s been to connect with other believers, because Christians in Japan are a dramatic minority.

Here was a new channel for them to receive encouragement from fellow believers around the world.

It reminded me of one of the first amazing things about the internet thirty years ago. That one person could reach a global audience, which was unheard of before.

It also struck me that this happened during Holy Week.

Not only can Japanese Christians receive the encouragement of Easter week from fellow believers around the world, but others who are not Christians can bear witness to how Christians celebrate their faith and the person at the center of it, Jesus Christ.

So now I’m intrigued.

Because I had kind of abandoned my perspective of X as a mission field. I had largely chalked it up to a great primer for me to start posting consistently in writing every day, which was the more important metric for me. And honestly, that is the real takeaway from this past year.

I am now conditioned to writing every day, short form, long form, it doesn’t matter. I write something from my perspective, in my own voice.

Not many people see it, but I’m okay with that. Because I understand that I am perfecting a craft and learning about myself in the process.

So I pivoted to this video challenge to do the same thing: make videos every day and post them for 30 days, to demonstrate my willingness to be consistent in a more challenging area.

Well, I was right. Video is genuinely more challenging for me.

But I have felt strongly God pulling me into video. And I’m trying to be obedient to that, even without knowing where it goes.

It’s tempting as a Christian — when you get a realization about something, or feel like God shows you something small — to try to read the tea leaves (which, by the way, is not a spiritual concept).

God doesn’t give us promptings or callings or small glimpses of things so we can try to predict the future. He gives them to us so we can be a good steward of what he’s given us right now.

I feel like that’s what he did with me and X. But I got confused, because I came into it seeing a mission field, and then somewhere along the way I blended in with all the motivational speakers.

I’m not opposed to encouraging people — I understand that’s part of the deal. But it wasn’t what I came there to do.

X has been remarkable for getting me to build a consistency that led to this video challenge.

And even now I’m working to improve based on what I’m learning, to figure out how to spread the message on YouTube.

But I still don’t feel like God has given up on that original vision.

I know I’m not the only one who feels this way about X. Many Christians have expressed what a unique environment it is, and many are hosting Bible studies and audio spaces around biblical topics.

My main point is this:

Our job as Christians is simply to tell the story of what he’s done for us.

We make it too complicated. We think we need flashy concepts or big audiences.

But all it takes is two people connecting in some way, and then those two people go out and tell somebody else. That’s all that’s needed for God to spread His wonderful message of salvation.

I’m not trying to read ahead and figure out what he’s doing next.

I’m trying hard to stay in my lane, do what He’s asked me to do right now, and trust Him with what comes after.

This is how I’m living that out.

And here’s my Day 11 video that’s also me living this out publicly.

I Came to X as a Mission Field. Here’s What I Learned.

I originally started posting on X because I saw it as a mission field.

It doesn’t sound like a big deal, but it’s huge.

It also struck me that this happened during Holy Week.

But I still don’t feel like God has given up on that original vision.

My main point is this:

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I Came to X as a Mission Field. Here’s What I Learned.

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