A few years ago my younglife area director asked the Greater Durham/Chapel Hill leaders the question, what is something that you would sacrifice in order for one person to know Christ? That question was met with a chorus of christian mmhms and the scratches of pens on paper. Of course I wrote it down on the inside cover on my bible so that could meditate on it daily, and naturally i forgot about less than month later. Here I am, years later, thousands of miles from Chapel Hill, struggling with that very same question. My answer of yes Lord has come relatively easily for a while now, yes Lord I will follow only you to NC, yes Lord I will give up the worlds view of success and choose not to go to college, yes Lord I will give up this life I have worked hard to make to follow you around the world for 11 month, yes Lord i will give up the comforts of my home country for as long as you call even if that means forever. That was until I just had to make a sacrifice that made me stop in my tracks and rethink everything.
My family is going through one of the hardest times in our lives right now and Im still in Africa. I had to choose between going back for a week to be with my family and stay with my squad and lead travel day. God made it abundantly clear that I was supposed to stay, but I was not happy about it. I put a smile on my face and did what I was supposed to do but decided that God and I were not going to be on speaking terms. Yes, I was literally giving God the silent treatment, and boy am I thankful that He is not an immature God, because He never stopped talking to me! In fact multiple time since we have been here in Zambia our host has talked about Jesus leaving the 99 for just 1 and thats how we are also meant to live our lives. Which brings me back to the question written in my bible. I have to give up whatever my 99 is so that I can chase just 1. My 99 is my family and this month I had to give them up.
In Luke 15:4-7 it talks about how much more the one returned sheep matters to the kingdom than the 99 that were always safe. In the christian community we are big on how we are that 1 who was lost and Jesus came after us ie: Reckless Love (one of my all time fave songs). So now that we have been rescued and are meant to live/love like Jesus, why do we feel like we are too good to leave our own “99” for just 1? What or who is your “99”? What are the odds you leave them 99 to 1?
