Day 87 (Written Thursday March 8) ~ If I'm going to be completely uncensored in my honesty, throughout my life, whenever missionaries came to speak at my congregation, I mentally rolled my eyes and thought, "Here goes a boring presentation with statistics, pictures of people I don't know and then a plea for money." This is what went through my head, and it is what when through the minds of many other brethren as well (I know this because I did local work for 15 years and most all of my friends were Christians and they told me so). God has a funny way of teaching you lessons that you need to learn the most. Let me deviate from my point for a moment to illustrate this.
In 1995 I was an erring Christian and my wife was not a Christian. She had been raised in a denominational church and had never heard of or even considered what the Bible said about the one church. One night at dinner with some friends (who were also unfaithful Christians), the husband started picking with Jade about the church of Christ. He did not believe what he was saying, or at least he didn't live like he believed it, but just wanted to say some controversial and offensive things to get Jade "riled up." Well, he succeeded. I remember that night hearing her proclaim emphatically that she would never set foot in a church of Christ as long as she lived. A short time later, a preacher from East Hill (my home congregation) came to visit us and started a series of Bible studies with us. When the studies got to a point of really examining the what the Bible says about the church, Jade (who was already hyper-sensitive due to the previous conversation and did I mention she was 9 months pregnant?), told the preacher to leave and that he wasn't welcome back. Again, I heard her words, I will never set foot in the East Hill Church of Christ and my child will never go there either. Be careful when you tell God what you won't do, He just might teach you a lesson. One year later I was restored, Jade was baptized (at East Hill by the preacher she threw out of the house) and two years later (after graduating from preaching school), I was hired by East Hill as one of their preachers. We spent the next 8 years at East Hill.
Back to my original point. I always had a bad attitude toward missionaries. They weren't "real" preachers since they didn't work with a local congregation. They were professional beggars, etc, etc, etc. I wonder is God was laughing back then when I felt this way and smiling right now that I am a missionary. He had a lesson that He wanted to teach me and it is one I am learning very well.
Here is what I have learned about missionaries in the last few months, having met and spent a great deal of time with many of them. They have a commitment and dedication to their "job" that would be hard to match by any other profession. They are enthusiastic, always looking for, open to, and willing to pursue new opportunities. They are fearless. Uncertainty and stepping out of the boat in faith to walk on the water is a daily requirement of the job. They are horribly underpaid, underfunded, unsupported and unappreciated. How many more multimillion dollar fellowship halls and multipurpose buildings do we really need?!?! We'll borrow tens of thousands of dollars to pave our parking lots, but can't find a hundred dollars a month in the budget to support mission works?!?! They are often alone, far, far away from home and their families. They are on the front lines of the spiritual war for souls, battling poverty, distance, underfunding, language/culture barriers, government resistance, time and resources, just to keep one more person out of hell. They are making a real difference and changing the world in ways that wars and government leaders never could. They represent the helpless and hopeless, the faceless and nameless, the forgotten and the ignored when they stand before gatherings of hundreds of the most blessed people in history here in America.
This is my letter of confession and repentance at my poor attitude toward these heroes of the faith who have been forever changed and can't go back having seen what they've seen overseas. God got my attention, have I gotten yours?
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