Willing vs. Going

I met some wonderful people last night via mutual friends in NH (Thanks, Sandy and Mike!) Some folks you just click with right away... Kathryn, ChiChi, and Yared were those kind of people – incredibly welcoming, full of life, and fun to be around. It felt good to laugh a lot with them. After meeting at Starbucks and then picking up snacks at the grocery store, we made our way to their church for a gathering. A missionary family home on furlough from Papua New Guineau gave a powerful, moving presentation. I’m left to struggle with the blurry line between guilt and conviction.

For a while my prayer/mantra has been, essentially, “If you lead me, Lord, I will follow. Where you lead me, I will go...” I don’t think there’s anything wrong with this kind of prayer, but I was challenged last night by Peter (the main guy who shared) to be the kind of person who says, “I’m not just willing, I’m going.” In some ways, I wonder if [for me] being “willing to go” (to Africa and/or somewhere in the developing world where people have little or no access to the gospel) has been somewhat of a cop-out, an excuse for not actually going.

To be honest, the guy who shared last night was a little too “evangelical” for my taste. Additionally, while talking with him afterwards I realized his take on women in ministry was, in my humble opinion, a bit narrow. (Friends who know me well, you would be proud: I didn’t challenge his assertion that women shouldn’t be in a position where they are teaching men except to say that I thought there was good biblical scholarship on both sides of the equation, and I let it go at that. Impressive, huh?) Theological disagreements aside, I can’t ignore what this family’s example and presentation is bringing up in my life... I was reminded last night of facts, figures and scripture that I know I’ve heard in a myriad of different ways before, and yet needed to hear again.

Here are some of the factors compelling me to go and work in the developing world (by no means an exhaustive list):

-“From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” - Luke 12:48 (NIV)
I KNOW I have been given much...

- While the Western world is permeated with access to the gospel, millions of people (specifically those in the “10-40 Window”) have never heard of Jesus. In light of this stark reality, the following quote by John Keith Falconer is incredibly poignant: "I have but one candle of life to burn, and I would rather burn it out in a land filled with darkness than in a land flooded with light.”

-“I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me." -Acts 26:17b-18 (NIV)

-God stirs the hearts of his people to be involved in his work (Ex. 36:2); my heart is stirred to work with people in developing countries!

Here are some of my objections to going (again, by no means an exhaustive list):

-My Current Paradigm: I don’t like talking about hell; I’d much rather ignore the concept. Further, I’m not really comfortable with the blanket statement “unsaved people go to hell” because I think we, as Christians, have in many ways emasculated the concept of salvation. (There’s a lot more I could expound on here, but for now I will refrain suffice to say that I am not promoting a Unitarian Universalist approach.) It’s much easier to abdicate responsibility under this paradigm.

- Contextualization Issues: In years past missionaries have done far more harm than good in their efforts to “evangelize.” Are Americans/Westerners really useful in the developing world? Are we able to properly contextualize the gospel?

-Fear: Moving to DC has been challenging enough for me; moving to Africa could potentially be incredibly lonely, isolating, hard... (Imagine, having to suffer a bit for the gospel...gasp!)

So.....yeah. This is some of what I’ve been thinking about lately.