The Time is Short

We are approaching the end of our whirlwind trip to the States and we have less than two weeks before we will be moving to Chad. We’ve spent hours packing and repacking (and sometimes repacking). We’ve driven over 3,000 miles to visit family, friends and supporters. We’ve spent hours in doctors offices getting checkups, shots, prescription refills, and Judah even had a cavity filled (I know, already!?). We’ve seen God’s faithfulness demonstrated over and over again, and we finish our time here with heavy hearts but also high hopes. Emotions are all over the map as we say goodbyes, make final preparations, and collapse at the end of the day in prayer that God would help our children adjust well and that our marriage would thrive despite the immense pressures of daily life in Chad.

I am overwhelmed by an acute sense of my weaknesses and limitations. I’m not competent to complete this task. I like to sleep in a house cooled to about 68-70 degrees, not lay there sweating under a mosquito net hoping for a drop into the 80s. I love Mexican food. I prefer thick green grass to rocks and dirt. I’m not even that good at sharing my faith. Sometimes I struggle for the right words; sometimes I am too self-absorbed to even notice the needs and opportunities around me. I sweat. A lot. Am I crazy?

Maybe, but one thing that’s settled in my mind is that there’s nothing else I’d rather do than move to Africa to bring the Great News to those who certainly could use some. Millions in Chad exist among ethnic groups with NO ONE to preach to them the most amazing message in the history of the universe. And with my eternity secure in the hands of the One who spoke the world into existence, what do I have to lose? A little comfort? This illusion we call “safety”? If we believe in the absolute Sovereignty of God, then we must also believe that the American suburbanite is no safer than the missionary in the most dangerous field. What did the Apostle Paul mean by “filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions” in Colossians 1?

²⁴ Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church,²⁵ of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known,²⁶ the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints.²⁷ To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.²⁸ Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.²⁹ For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.

It seems to me that Paul is saying that through his own suffering he testifies to the One who suffered for us, proclaiming His greatness by Paul’s willingness to joyfully endure suffering for the sake of the church and those who would be added to it. Oh that we would view danger, risk, and suffering in the same way Paul did!

So here we go – by faith in the one who is made strong in our weakness (2 Cor. 12:8-10).

In the words of John Patton:

Among many who sought to deter me, was one dear old Christian gentleman, whose crowning argument always was, “The cannibals! you will be eaten by cannibals!” At last I replied, “Mr. Dickson, you are advanced in years now, and your own prospect is soon to be laid in the grave, there to be eaten by worms; I confess to you, that if I can but live and die serving and honoring the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I am eaten by cannibals or by worms.

soli Deo gloria