Yes, I am aware, it makes no sense to the world to leave college and serve in impoverished areas among the least of these. But something that I came to terms with is that the things Christ calls His followers to, do not make sense to the world. The Kingdom of heaven is an inside-outside-upside-down kingdom, where you lose to gain and die to live. Where the first are the last and by losing your life you find it.
I go because I refuse to live a comfortable, complacent life, while 6,000+ people groups die without hearing the gospel. I go because I refuse to sit still while 26,000 children die daily from malnutrition and other preventable causes. I go because I refuse to watch over a million children be bound in sex-trafficking. I go because I know that Christ's commandments were not just a calling for the few. I go because He is worthy to be exalted among the nations. To put it simply, I go because He has called me to go.
About a month ago, my friend James Barnett spoke at a church on the distinction of "admiring" Christ and "following" Christ- a dichotomy made by 18th century Danish philosopher, Søren Kierkegaard. Kierkegaard said that the admirers, however good-intentioned, are merely spectators who want to remain safe. They never make any true sacrifices, though in words, phrases, and songs, are inexhaustible about how they prize Christ. They renounce nothing, give up nothing, and will not reconstruct their life. They won't be what they admire and will not let their life express what it is they supposedly admire. Not so for the follower! No, no! The follower aspires with all their strength, with all their will to be what they admire.
May we all make the choice to become followers of a very dangerous-yet-good Christ. May we choose to pour ourselves out to see Christ exalted among the nations, the captives freed, and the earth to be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
