Having been on a few missions trip when I was younger, I’ve
seen people living in simple/ basic conditions and I believe many more live in
far worst situations that I might never get to witness in my lifetime.
And I’ve often wondered how is it that the disparity is so
huge? Many children in Two-Thirds world play amongst slums and there find their
“treasures/ toys”. My children have so many play things that I really couldn’t
care if they lose most of it. Then I won’t have to be in this loop of keeping
it back in storage so that they could wake the next day & mess it all up
again (though this gets better as they grow older, right?) Clothing that so
fill up the cupboard that keeping it closed would seem next to impossible at
times. And I often times feel that if there’s some sort of national emergency,
my family and I can probably survive for a couple of weeks on the food that’s
in the house. We have so much food in our country that there are soooo many
buffet options as well – and how much more food goes to the dumpster from those
buffets?
Even from the spiritual perspective, we see a vast
difference. When we have so many resources that gives us access to the Gospel
and can probably allow the same person to become a Christian and re-dedicate
his/ her life many times over if he/she so desires and yet some people go
through life not having ever heard the Gospel at all – simply because no one
has preached/ shared it with them (Romans 10:13-15).
There is a great struggle in me – perhaps one side is of the
carnal mind and the other one coming from an eternal perspective, trying to
make its way in. And made me realize how very little faith I have and how much
of the world is actually embedded in me.
How I still long to give many material things to my children
i.e. foods they love, sports equipment they enjoy; not wanting them to feel
left out and having the chance to live life to the fullest. But if Jesus is all
that they need, wouldn’t I spend more time teaching them from the Word and
showing them what it means to live out His Word and pray that Jesus is
ultimately the greatest inheritance of all left behind for them?
If I’m really out to live His will, would I not invest my
resources to finance/ support the on-going work of sharing His gospel to the
many unreached peoples groups and trust the Lord to provide just enough for my
own needs and not reserve more than enough for my own comfort as well? How
seriously do we take God’s Word when He says carry one another’s burden (Gal
6:2) when I set aside more funds to finance the security of my future when many
brothers and sisters might not even live past today? If He has commissioned us
to take care of the widows and the orphans (James 1:27), how much time/
resources have I spent on loving and blessing them?
One of the ways I can answer the above questions is to look
at our family’s budgeting spreadsheet. And just look at the amounts being
proportioned out. Or look at our schedule. And see how much time is spent doing
what exactly?
The struggle is real.
It is His game plan to use the Church to fulfill the Great
Commission (Matt 28:18-20). And if He has planned it, surely His strategy is
not an impossible one – He would not set us up to fail. If we continue hearing
the many talks on missions and listen to those statistics presented, the task
would seem insurmountable. But is it really?
The real answer lies within our hands – what are we willing
to give of our resources? He is no debtor to men and He’s not a beggar that’s
in need. He only requires obedience in us to do His will if we desire to follow
Him.
So in this one lifetime that we have, would we help to
contribute to the great disparity (and make it even greater?) or would we prayerfully
and financially seek to fulfil the Great Commission? Admittedly I’m still a
work in progress. Have a long way to go till the day I can say that I’ve
completely surrendered my resources (or the allocation of it) to the Lord. In fact to acknowledge that He has blessed me with those resources in the first place! Not sure
if that day will ever come but I hope and pray that as I grow to trust Him and
His Word, my grip on the things of the world (that including my own wisdom/ preferences)
can loosen and the struggle between the carnal and eternal can diminish over
time. And my desire to surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in every area
of life can be a reality while I’m living. As Hudson Taylor so aptly said “Christ
is either Lord of all, or He is not Lord at all”.
