Me, the Gospel, and urgency.
My first mission trip was in 2010. Following that trip to Costa Rica, I majored in intercultural studies, would visit Mexico once a month, lead trips through my university, and live in Honduras for missions. I would attend mission conferences, preach the gospel when it was comfortable and safe, and lead worship. From the outside perspective, you would think that my life revolved around the gospel. You would think that I truly grasped and understood the importance of Jesus and lived a life dedicated to the Great Commission.
If you weren’t convinced enough by that, I quit my job and abandoned all my comforts to go on the World Race. You probably thought, “Oh for sure. This girl LOVES the gospel and clearly understands the urgency of declaring Jesus to the ends of the earth”!
Friends, I don’t think I truly grasped the severity of the situation until this month. THIS MONTH. I have been living my life THINKING that I understood the gospel, it’s urgency, and missions up until this point. BUT I HAVEN’T. I have been living as if the gospel is important when I want it to be important.
A few weeks ago, I sat outside a mosque during Friday prayer. Women aren’t allowed to go in with the men during this time, so I sat outside on the steps and watched THOUSANDS of men walk into this mosque. It was in that moment that it hit me. These men, lost, without the hope of salvation, walking to pray. On those steps, I began to cry. It was the first time in my life that I cried for the lost. LOST. Friends let that sink in. The world is lost. How can we say that we understand and grasp the gospel when it doesn’t move us to speak and declare the name of Jesus with every single breath? How is it that we are more concerned with talking about politics, sports, or television, and not one bit concerned about speaking about JESUS and that the world doesn’t know him?! We were given authority and power, yet we sit in silence!!! I am overseas reading about America, about politics, seeing anger all over news stations and Facebook. If we talked about Jesus half as much as we talked about politics…if we even PRAYED half as much as we spoke the name “Donald Trump”.
America has FREEDOM. Freedom to pray, freedom to go to church, freedom to declare that Jesus is LORD. Here, pastors are being abducted for evangelizing. Here, church’s of different people groups can’t meet in public. Here, churches have and are being burnt down because of the gospel! For 24 years, I have been missing opportunity. I haven’t lived a life as if the gospel was something full of urgency. People are going to spend eternity separated from God if we don’t GET IT TOGETHER. THE GOSPEL IS URGENT. I am crying as I write this because I have missed so many opportunities. I cannot live this life anymore with making excuses for missed opportunity. We want to see more of Jesus over this earth yet refuse to speak of him! We are too caught up in the fear of rejection. Are you more afraid of someone rejecting you, or of that person spending eternity separated from Jesus? Let’s compare the loss.
I am not writing this blog to shame you. I refuse to live in shame. I am writing this as a wake up call. A call that I just received! SPEAK TRUTH. DECLARE HIS NAME. Especially if you are reading this in America. Speak now. Don’t wait for tomorrow. You are so incredibly blessed to have the FREEDOM. Say that word. Speak it out into existence. FREEDOM. FREEDOM. FREEDOM. Whether you are Republican or Democrat, you have freedom. So what are you going to do with that freedom? Don’t waste your life away like I had been doing. Please, talk to your neighbor. Love your coworker. Ask strangers their name! Look at people how Jesus sees them. Pray often. But please, please understand the urgency of the gospel. I want God to say, “Well done my good and faithful servant”, don’t you? The world is a lost place, and it is time that we start proclaiming the name of Jesus. We can no longer pretend that we don’t see the lost, or that we are uncomfortable.
The time is NOW!
