It seems possible these days to turn any noun into a verb. This is nothing new. Even in the 1990s, Calvin (of Calvin and Hobbes) is quoted as saying, “I like to verb words.” So, I thought I would align myself, as GFA’s director of missionary recruitment, with this aspect of popular culture and verb. Here’s what I came up with—boot camp yourself.

Now, let me explain what this has to do with missionary recruitment. I’ll assure you at the outset that it has nothing to do with either booting or camping.

What we need is a new generation of men and women willing to share the Savior in challenging places. Not just willing but wanting to. In other words, a generation who want to take Christ to places where He has not been known and owned because of the inherent challenge in taking Him there.

Since I am a man, let me get on men a little. Where are the men like Robert Morrison, that stodgy pioneering missionary to China, who prayed “that God would station [him] in that part of the missionary field where the difficulties were greatest and to all human appearances, the most insurmountable?” Where are the men who would dare to pray a prayer like that? Or even to desire such a thing?

Take the prayer dare and pray a prayer like that!

Then, put feet to your prayers by preparing yourself to endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Boot camp yourself.

Where should you begin? I don’t want to sound unspiritual, so I am going to insert here the importance of the daily discipline of spending time in the presence of your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ—what we call personal devotions.

Having sounded that spiritual note, let me suggest that you boot camp yourself in the practical daily disciplines of eating and sleeping.

Seriously!

In coaching parents of very young children, we often instruct them that the key battles to be won are at mealtimes and at bedtimes. Make your children eat when it is time to eat and go to bed when it is time to go to bed. If you can win the daily battles in these two areas, you will go far in training children who will survive life and even contribute to the world where they live. (If this seems entirely too simplistic, let me remind you of the retired Navy Admiral whose first piece of advice to 2014 graduates of the University of Texas at Austin was to make their beds every day.)

So, may I suggest that you analyze those two areas of your life to see how you are doing. Discipline yourself to eat regularly, healthfully, and meaningfully. Would a regular breakfast be a good discipline for you to add to your life? What about adding a salad? Saying no to soda? Requiring yourself to drink a certain amount of water every day? Learn to say no to yourself when it comes to excess or unhealthiness. Schedule when you treat yourself.

Similarly, boot camp yourself when it comes to bedtime. Have you discovered how difficult it is to go to bed and get sleep in our modern culture? If current trends continue, the word bedtime is going to disappear from the English language.

My doctor will sometimes ask two questions at my annual physical. What time did you go to bed last night? What time did you fall asleep?

Not to name names or anything, but smart phones too often create a long parenthesis between when we go to bed and when we go to sleep. Again, discipline yourself to go to bed and go to sleep. Too often, laziness keeps us from sleeping when we should. The same laziness means we do not get up when we should get up (and that’s when spiritual disciplines such as morning time with your Lord disappear). Do what it takes to discipline yourself to go to bed and go to sleep. Avoid screen time right before bed. Put your phone across the room at night. Plan periods of time when your phone is on airplane mode. Turn off the Wi-Fi at night. Work hard during the day so that you can go to bed at night. Work while others play, so that you can sleep while others work.

Why should you boot camp yourself in the areas of eating and sleeping? Not so you can glory in your newfound self-discipline. Not so you can—here’s more verbing—one up your friends. Not even so you can lose weight, feel better, or live longer. Boot camp yourself so that you are preparing yourself to be one of those messengers of the cross and ambassadors of the Savior who will ask your Lord, “Station me in that part of the missionary field where the difficulties were greatest and to all human appearances, the most insurmountable.”

Perhaps boot camping yourself in the areas of eating and sleeping are the next steps toward missions you need to take!