I was sitting on a woven mat in a bamboo-walled house with other people who were talking in a language I did not know. I had no idea what they were talking about, so not surprisingly, I felt a bit lonely.

Another time I was conversing with people in a language we all knew. Yet we were unable to connect due to differences in values, assumptions, and experiences, so I still felt lonely.

I had chosen this loneliness when I decided to become a missionary and move to Papua New Guinea.

Fellowship is built on sharing resources, ideas, experiences, hopes, opportunities, triumphs, and disappointments. When there are hindrances to sharing — differences in language, culture, values, abilities, experiences, and assets — fellowship is constrained. This leads to loneliness.

Sometimes when God wants to do something important, He calls someone to cross over from their home community into a place that is very different. Moses was called to cross over from an Egyptian palace to a Midianite sheepfold. David was called to cross over from a sheepfold into an army. Esther was called to cross over from a Jewish neighborhood to a Persian palace. As outsiders, these crossover people were misunderstood and lonely, but they developed a close relationship with God, and He made them change agents.

Missionaries are called to cross over to become change agents.

As a young man, I began learning how to cross over when I chose to join a church that was very different from the one in which I grew up. People in my new church assumed I was just like them and treated me accordingly, but I was an outsider and different. I was lonely. In my loneliness I grew closer to God. Later, He called me to cross over to other church groups, eventually preparing me to be a bridge between churches to bring them together.

Jesus is the ultimate change agent, crossing over from heaven to Earth, where no one understood Him except His Heavenly Father. Through choosing loneliness and crossing over, He became the bridge between God and all humanity.

God still calls His people to cross over from familiar communities to places where they will likely be misunderstood and lonely. As He uses them as change agents and bridges to build His Kingdom, He can also use their loneliness to change them.