Life's Dismount
Jul/27/2009 08:02
Sometimes media has the power to smack a person into reality; this one smacked me into why we’re pursuing ministry in the first place. I remember one Friday evening sitting in our car this past winter as Angelina and I were debating our future telling her that I didn’t want to look back and the end of our lives regretfully saying “I wish we’d done that...” I had a sense of dread that after only 5 years on the ministry road we were heading towards an existence called “safe Americans” and that we had become another ministry statistic; 8 out of 10 church planters, ministers, missionaries burnout within the first 5 years. That is a haunting statistic. What was our experience at SIBI about? What were those 3 years in Ireland for? Had God called us into ministry just to quit after we had our fill of ministry experience? Had we become one of the statistics?
Just as Satan works through sexual sin, divorce, money trouble, gossip, division, and heresy to break a ministry he also uses the tried of true method of safety to woo us into complacency. Somewhere many of us bought the lie that God’s purpose for us was to be safe. You can hear it in our prayers:
“Jesus, please take this away from me.”
“Jesus, please keep them safe.”
“Jesus, please send someone else.”
God promised to work together all things for our good, including the difficult and the bad. He might have promised eternal fellowship but he never promised blanket safety. I’m not suggesting that we don’t implore God for his protection, but that we refuse to settle for the mundane, mediocre, and padded life. On the day I face eternity, I don’t want to look back on a safe life with nothing to show for it. (more like the unlived life) I want to finish across that line panting, sweating, triumphant, humble and filled with joy to finally hear those words from Jesus, “well done, well done.” This is why on that winter’s day we decided to go for it, to get back into the adventure of missions and to let God use us. So far, it’s been an adventure with much more to come. Will you join us?
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Just as Satan works through sexual sin, divorce, money trouble, gossip, division, and heresy to break a ministry he also uses the tried of true method of safety to woo us into complacency. Somewhere many of us bought the lie that God’s purpose for us was to be safe. You can hear it in our prayers:
“Jesus, please take this away from me.”
“Jesus, please keep them safe.”
“Jesus, please send someone else.”
God promised to work together all things for our good, including the difficult and the bad. He might have promised eternal fellowship but he never promised blanket safety. I’m not suggesting that we don’t implore God for his protection, but that we refuse to settle for the mundane, mediocre, and padded life. On the day I face eternity, I don’t want to look back on a safe life with nothing to show for it. (more like the unlived life) I want to finish across that line panting, sweating, triumphant, humble and filled with joy to finally hear those words from Jesus, “well done, well done.” This is why on that winter’s day we decided to go for it, to get back into the adventure of missions and to let God use us. So far, it’s been an adventure with much more to come. Will you join us?
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