I recently read a comment by a very busy mission
leader involved in measures to bring the gospel in word and deed to those
living in desperate need in countries around the world where life is hard and
Christ is not known (and life is always desperately hard where Christ is not
known). His comment was in the context of mentioning just a couple of
international trips to do ministry in those countries that he and his wife, also
a mission leader, had been on in the past couple of months; not to mention all
the other varied ministries their organization is involved in around the world. Both trips were to different parts of the
world, two different parts of the world hostile to Christ. He said:
Sometimes I wonder why we never seem to get ahead,
always running to keep up with our ministry commitments. Then I make a list
like this and realize it’s our own fault. But
the opportunities are as magnificent as the needs are enormous and we’re
seeing lives changed forever in some of the most desperate corners of the
world. [1]
(emphasis mine)
“But the opportunities are as magnificent as the
needs are enormous”.
Let that phrase roll around your mind as a fine wine
would roll around your tongue. I did. It is a catchy phrase. It caught my
attention.
But it is more than a catchy phrase. It is a true
phrase. But a truth known only to those who see.
If one doesn’t see the need or the opportunities,
does that make them less true, less real? Of course not. But do we have eyes
that see, that see those “enormous needs”? Do we then have a mind and will to
look for and find those “magnificent opportunities” to meet those needs?
Sometimes it is simply a matter of education. Once
we have been taught to “see”, it is then up to us to cultivate the will to
continue to see, rather than turn away; to see the enormous needs and look for
the opportunities to meet those needs. We cannot see those needs and not look
for the opportunities to alleviate those needs, unless we would choose to
become cold and hard hearted, turning away from what we have seen.
Followers of Jesus Christ have not been taught to
turn away, to become cold and heard hearted toward those in need. Indeed,
followers of Jesus Christ have been taught by Jesus himself to love our neighbors,
to love one another as God has loved us. To lay down our lives for the sake of
others, as Jesus did for our sakes.[2]
In today’s world there is no lack of opportunity to
learn to see. Great needs shout at us from every quarter. So the ball is always
in our court: it is up to us to will to see and respond to those needs.
Only when we have trained our hearts to see the
needs will we begin to see the magnificent opportunities to meet those needs.
Then we can align ourselves with and commit ourselves to those who are busy
about making the most of those magnificent opportunities to meet those enormous
needs. In our neighborhoods, in our
communities, and around the world.
We should be involved in all these areas, going
where we are able and called by God to go, giving financially to send where we
cannot go.
And always, always praying the Lord of the Harvest
to go before us all. For our first call is to Him.[3] Then
He calls us to work with Him to meet specific enormous needs. [4]
And He does call us to this work; it not just for
the few, but for all who name the Name of Jesus. These were Jesus’s last
commands to His followers, after all. No follower of Jesus Christ is exempt:
Love one another….We know love by this, that He laid
down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives… Go into all the world
and make disciples… [5]
When we do this we can be sure we too will have the
opportunity to see “lives changed forever in some of the most desperate corners
of the world.”[6]
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