‘Why not me?’ This extremely vague question has a lot of potential to frustrate me and often does frustrate me because I’m usually caught up in my circular reasoning. I began to ask myself, what’s really stopping me from going to the 2.7 billion disengaged people in the world? Upon meeting many encouraging people this weekend, I came across this realization: God commands of us to do two simple things. That is, to love God and your neighbor as yourself and to go and make disciples of all nations [Mark 12:30-31 and Matthew 28:19]. For me personally when I began to consider doing short term and long term mission trips, my mind began to be polluted with all these questions: 1) To what country do I want to go? 2) Who am I going to serve? 3) How am I going to find support? 4) How am I going to get there? 5) What skills do I possess that could contribute? And not one of these questions are included in those two verses mentioned above:”30AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.’ 31“The second is this, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”[Mark 12:30-31] and ”Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit...” [Matthew 28:19] All those questions I kept asking seemed to just be feeding my insecurity, contributing to my doubt; I could seriously ask a million questions prolonging my call. What I’m saying here is that we don’t have to hesitate so much. Any sort of commitment is scary! Fear is good, but this sort of fear is the fear that’s meant to save your life. Like the fear that my parents had instilled in me if I didn’t do well in school. It made me afraid of their disappointment, but their intentions were to see me do well. This fear was for my benefit - to push me forward, to not be complacent. So with this God instilled fear, I know that the objective is to not allow this fear to keep me in some dark corner trembling, but allowing this fear to move me to embrace the trust that I have for Jesus; the trust and faith I have for Him to deliver, to provide.
Take a look at my main man Isaiah…
5Then I (Isaiah) said,
“Woe is me, for I am ruined!
Because I am a man of unclean lips,
And I live among a people of unclean lips;
For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.”
6Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. 7He touched my mouth with it and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven.”
8Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I. Send me!” Isaiah 6:5-8
You see, Isaiah was hanging out when some crazy angels (seraphs) began surrounding him and clearly he knew he was in the presence of the Lord. And what happened when he came into the presence of holiness and all that goodness? The contrast was so evident that he was convicted of all his weaknesses professing that he was evil, the people he was around were evil, all of his being was doomed because of his evilness. And after acknowledging this, after the seraph came to him and told him that God had forgiven him, he just did what any person ought to do after being saved. His debt was unto God from here on out for rescuing and saving him. And after God asked, who will go? Isaiah immediately raised his hand, offered himself, and said ‘SEND ME!’ with the most eagerness and least hesitation. Isn’t that nuts? Isaiah didn’t stop to ponder, ‘Oh, but where am I going, God?’ or ‘So who do I talk to, God?’ or he didn’t even think to ask then ‘What about my safety?’ I think Isaiah felt the urgency for everyone to be rescued from their evilness, just as he was, and share the love of God that had been so restoring to him in his life.
Isn’t that awesome? Now when God says go, that doesn’t necessarily mean to Afghanistan or Central Asia. It could even mean, ‘GO! … stay home this summer and love on your family at home.’ or ‘GO! … take a part time job at Jamba Juice and make relationships.’ I mean, I think when we begin to trust God, he truly reveals himself and opens doors for us BECAUSE he wants to make it evident that He really does LOVE us. Like when you’re in a relationship, you want to do so much for that person so that they don’t doubt you and your intentions. God does the same! That’s the beauty of answered prayers. That’s our assurance. It’s not just hope, but it’s the truth that we know. Ah.. and when things get weird, just keep pressing forward and keep faith that Jesus loves you. 5Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding.6In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6
That’s all. Brain dump.
ps. and you know, the kingdom is advanced when God is obeyed.
pss. i kind of laugh when i talk about kingdoms.. angels.. and holiness. we really have no perception of such things and could never relate it to anything. so yeah i’m not talking about bowsers castle, or angels in the outfield, or… the holy grail. There is just no match for my God, absolutely incomparable.
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