The Mission We Don't See

This is a hard post to write.

These thoughts have been bouncing around in my head for a couple of weeks now. Once in a while I try to catch them, but before I can put them into writing, they slip through my grasp and resume their race around my mind. I sit and watch them, observing, sometimes see them take shape. I learn from them.

But they sure are tricky.

So tonight I sit and try (perhaps in vain) to draw these thoughts in long enough to make sense of them, to paint a picture of the challenge they present to me.

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Each week we gather to fill the cushioned pews, brought together by a common belief, dressed in our Sunday best, all tidied up for another time of worship and fellowship. Lunch comes after the sermon, either at home with our families or out together with our fellow Church-goers. We flock together, are drawn together.

Then Sunday ends, and we move on with Monday, rarely carrying anything over with us into the new week.

We forget that on Monday, our Mission begins afresh.

I have been blessed to have been a part of a few Church bodies throughout my life who support missions wholeheartedly. These small gatherings of believers send large amounts of money to finance the work of the few missionaries who have dared to follow the voice of the Creator.

They do a wonderful work, these believers. They leave their own homes and countries for the sake of sharing the gospel to a lost and broken people.

But I can't help but notice...I think we've missed something major.

The Gospel thrives in many of these underpriviliged and persecuted countries. Underground Churches are growing exponentially as new believers sacrifice their families and comforts for the sake of knowing Christ. They love Him.

Without the comfortable seats, the beautiful songs, the educated preacher, the heated baptistry...they love Him.

All the while, we cling to our comforts and occasionally try to think of ways to fit Jesus into our lives without giving anything else up. We carry on while our country tries to extinguish God from our Pledge, schools, and holidays.

We are a wealthy people with many possessions living in a country of opportunity. We shop for new furniture, the latest gadgets, and bigger homes. We drive newer cars, eat at nice restaurants, shop at name brand stores.

We are surrounded by people in need, jobless, and living on the street. There are people in our communities who can't afford to buy groceries or clothe their kids. Teenagers wander around aimlessly, searching for a place to belong, finding identity in rebellion and crime. High school girls carry babies in their arms, forced into responsibilities beyond their years while still learning how to find their footing in a vicious and unforgiving world. Men stare at the pictures on their computer screens and deaden their pain with the bottle. Women wake up next to different partners each morning, looking for love but not realizing it runs deeper than a one-night stand. Couples divorce as though they committed to nothing, and their children grow up never learning what it is to love and cherish your partner.

This is the country we live in. These are the things we are surrounded by every day, and yet somehow completely oblivious to. Instead, we set our sights on the things we don't have. We shut out the hurting and the pain.

Jesus said, "it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. ...it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God (Matt. 19:23-24)."

Whether or not we consider ourselves wealthy, the fact is that we are rich.

Filthy rich.

Christian or not, the people of our nation make up the tiny percent of the world's population who can afford to buy food every day. And yet, our nation continually tries to snuff out the presence of the Provider of our wealth.

Our Churches send missionaries to the farthest corners of the earth. And rightfully so, for Jesus is the Deliverer of all peoples and nations. But we neglect the mission field sitting right outside our doors.

Indeed, I believe it is our own nation in which it has become the hardest for people to know the true Christ.