Here’s the reality. I left on the World Race thinking and hearing that I was giving up a lot to the leave the States for nearly a whole year. I more or less believed that. I left a decent paying full time job, I’m missing out on a couple of weddings, any births or deaths that happen this year, time spent with family and friends, hot showers, an actual bed, food that wasn’t likely to tear my guts apart, and I’m sure there are a few more things that could be thrown in there. It has dawned on me recently that I’ve given up nothing. I’ve sacrificed nothing for this trip this year. In fact, the more that I think about it, the more I feel that it’s the exact opposite.
Why in the world am I viewing a year spent sharing the Gospel, working in service to others, and volunteering my time to organizations in need of help as some sort of giant sacrifice?
You see, I’ve met people this year who have actually sacrificed things within their lives for the sake of the Gospel or in service to others. Chanda sacrificed relationships with her entire family because she recognized who Jesus truly was. Our main contact here in Nepal had to take his family and go on the run from Hindu fundamentalists when they began threatening the lives of him and his family for his Christian faith and the work that he was doing. Or Len and his family. Their daughter died in the Haiti earthquake and they have since given up a very comfortable life back in the States to see their daughter’s dream of an orphanage in Haiti come true. Once the construction is finished, they are moving their permanently.
I just finished reading The Heavenly Man. You want to see what it probably looks like to truly pick up the cross of Christ and carry it? This is it. It’s about a Chinese man named Brother Yun and his story of suffering for the sake of the Gospel. Years spent in Chinese and Myanmar prisons over the course of several imprisonments, countless hours/days of beatings and torture, his family constantly in hiding and on the run, and so much else. And through it all, God answers Brother Yun’s prayers and rewards him for his faith time and time again. This very day, thousands of Chinese are selling off/leaving behind everything they have in order to fulfill the great commission. They only have what they can carry with them and are traveling to countries where Christianity is not heard of, popular, and sometimes downright despised, despite the strong risk of persecution or violence that they face. In the face of all adversity, probably little money, or much support, they are willing to sacrifice all of it.
When have I faced persecution? Maybe the one time in Romania when the local priest and the police ran us out of a town under the threat of fines? Really, I’ve never suffered or sacrificed much for what I believe for that matter. Never have I had to sacrifice relationships with my family. Never had to go into hiding. I get to sit in a comfortable church on Sundays worshipping without a worry in the world or worries that the government may come in at any moment to start arresting people.
If I’ve sacrificed anything, it’s time in years past that I could have spent doing something better. I’m not saying that my life has been some sort of a waste. I don’t view it that way. But I’ve had some sort of misconception or have heard many times that I’ve been involved in so many good things or been able to help out lots of people. My issue is that I or others have looked it as things that “I” have done when in fact “I” haven’t done anything. Anything that’s been accomplished in my life is through the grace of God and not under my own power, sacrifices, or doings. This has been my reality check.
