“I could give up [on going overseas] and get married and become a music teacher. All of this is very noble and to be quite honest, sounds good to me! But in my heart, I want to change my world – more than I want a husband and more than I want comfort. I need…to tell others about Jesus.”
— Genessa Wells
This quote came from a book I began reading shortly after committing to the race – Radical by David Platt. It, like much of the book, hit home with me. Genessa Wells, much like myself, graduated from college and, instead of beginning her career, left for the Middle East to share the Gospel with people who had never heard.
Like Genessa, I need to tell others about Jesus.
More than I want to be a teacher, more than I want to get married, more than I want to stay here in my comfortable home with my loving family – I need to tell others about Jesus.
That is my job. That is my command.
This post is a little different from ones I’ve written previously. More than anything it’s simply a summary of excerpts from the book I mentioned above. Yet, Platt’s words are so powerful in and of themselves that adding to them seemed to take away from the point.
So I encourage you, read this post. Not because I “wrote” it. Read it because the following words are so incredibly powerful. They are true. They are honest. They are sent straight from God. And I know if you let them, they will impact you just like they did me.
Radical by David Platt
My biggest fear, even now, is that I will hear Jesus’ words and walk away, content to settle for less than radical obedience to him…He tells the wind to blow and the rain to fall, and they obey immediately. He speaks to the mountains, “You go there,” and he says to the seas, “You stop here,” and they do it. Everything in all creation responds in obedience to the Creator…until we get to you and me. We have the audacity to look God in the face and say, “No.”
Indeed, Jesus himself has not merely called us to go to all nations; he has created us and commanded us to go to all nations. We have taken this command, though, and reduced it to a calling – something that only a few receive.
We take Jesus’ words in Matthew 28 to make disciples of all nations, and we say, “That means other people.” But we look at Jesus’ command in Matthew 11:28, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest,” and we say, “Now, that means me.” We take Jesus’ promise in Acts 1:8 that the Spirit will lead us to the ends of the earth, and we say, “That means some people.” But we take Jesus’ promise in John 10:10 that we will have an abundant life, and we say, “That means me.”
In the process we have unnecessarily (and unbiblically) drawn a line of distinction, assigning the obligations of Christianity to a few while keeping the privileges of Christianity for all of us.
Intrigued yet? I know I was when I read it.
How true is that? We all do it. We take the good and the leave bad. We keep the privileges and push away the obligations. We, as a people, do what we want. We live how we want to – for us, for our gain.
But for what?
I could not help but think that somewhere along the way we had missed what is radical about our faith and replaced it with what is comfortable. While Christians choose to spend their lives fulfilling the American dream instead of giving their lives to proclaim the kingdom of God, literally billions in need of the gospel remain in the dark.
This is a cause worth living for. It is a cause worth dying for. We have the gospel of Christ in us, and we do not have time to waste. Some wonder if it is unfair for God to allow so many to have no knowledge of the gospel. But there is no injustice in God. The injustice lies in Christians who possess the gospel and refuse to give their lives to making it known among those who haven’t heard. That is unfair.
We owe Christ to the world – to the least person and to the greatest person, to the richest person and to the poorest person, to the best person and to the worst person. We owe Christ to every lost person on the face of this planet.
By this point, (if you are still reading – thanks for sticking with me), you’re probably thinking “This sounds a little extreme Kels. I’m not sure how I feel about this.”
I get it, it is a tough pill to swallow.
However, I am not saying that you have to drop everything and travel the world to obey Christ and be in his will. But I am saying that it is your job to make Christ known to the world.
Whether you GO, or DONATE, or PRAY – you (and I) have an obligation to make Christ known.
God delights in using ordinary Christians who come to the end of themselves and choose to trust in his extraordinary provision… The will of God is for you and me to give our lived urgently and recklessly to making the gospel and the glory of God known among all peoples, particularly those who have never even heard of Jesus.
The question, therefore, is not “Can we find God’s will?” The question is “Will we obey God’s will?” Will we risk everything – our comfort, our possessions, our safety, our security, our very lives – to make the gospel known among unreached peoples?
Radical obedience to Christ risks losing all these things. But in the end, such risk finds its reward in Christ. And he is more than enough for us…
So I said all of that to say this –
I am a World Racer. In 50 days I will travel to Georgia and meet the people that I will call my “family” for the next year. In 4 months, I will put a backpack on my back and walk out of my house for the last time for 11 months. I will say goodbye to my family and friends.
I will get on a plane and I will leave.
I will leave loved ones. I will leave comforts. I will leave safety. I will leave this so-called “American Dream.” And I won’t look back. Why?
Because I have found something worth losing everything else for.
God put me on this Earth for one reason – to make his name known – and that is exactly what I intend to do.
However, please know that even as World Racers…
There’s nothing special about us. But we’re proof that ordinary people who are naturally drawn to the comforts of the American dream can be converted to a radical faith in a radical Savior…We are now a community of faith taking Jesus at his word and following his plan, even when is does not make sense to the culture around us and even when it costs us.
And when we do this, we will discover that we were created for a purpose much greater than ourselves, the kind of purpose that can only be accomplished in the power of his Spirit…He has chosen to use us as ambassadors who carry the gospel to people who have never heard the name of Jesus…For the sake of more than a billion people today who have yet to even hear the gospel, I want to risk it all.
That is why I am going. That is why I am leaving.
“It seems that everything we do comes down to one thing: His glory. I pray that all our lives reflect that.” – Genessa Wells
