I was driving down the road this morning…
Headed for Bangkok, and America.
This morning was my last at the place I have grown to love desperately. My last with those who may hardly share a word with me we can both understand, but whose hearts are knit with mine already.
As I steered our vehicle past rice paddies, roadside stands and poverty stricken huts…
It was all I could do to hold the tears back.
My chin wanted to quiver. Chills ran up and down my whole body. If it weren't for the two men riding with me, I likely would have broken down.
Why?
I wish you could see what I've seen.
I wish you could see the desperate look in their eyes. Their bright, colorful advertisements, showcasing everything from base immorality to materialism and more. It seems to portray success and pleasure, but the hollow look on their faces speaks volumes otherwise.
I wish you could see their starving bodies. Their filthy homes…
Their Bondage to these giant golden statues that will never bring them anything but ruin.
I wish you could see their desperate struggle: To serve Christ, or not to serve Him?
Maybe, if you could see that, you’d understand why it was all I could do to hold the tears back.
I wish you could see the handful (yes, I meant to use that term) of weary soldiers of the cross. Without a miracle of giant proportions, there’s no way they’ll ever reach these masses of souls. Souls He thought were worth risking the universe for…
Go back to America and seek normal?
Never.
But I’m only a simple boy. A soldier?
Maybe, by His grace.
But let me tell you, as a soldier in training…
Over here, the army’s too small. The enemy’s having way too much fun here.
We serve the King and God of the universe.
Why all this embarrassment?
I won’t say more. By His grace, and according to His will, I’m going back.
I wish you’d come along. I wish you could see and feel and experience.
Live simply. So they can simply live.
Thank you, once again, for speaking my heart's cry. I know those tears that so often threaten to (and often do) spill over for the unreached. I've begun to discover, as I live simply so they might simply live, what Christ meant when He said He came so we might experience life more abundantly. I thought I understood that abundant life before (and life with Christ is so much better than life without), but now I know that it is only when we truly are giving everything we have and are in His service that He can fill us with everything He has and is. Oh, may I give until there is nothing more left of me and I am completely consumed with Him!
ReplyDeleteYes... I've barely tasted, whether here or in America, that more abundant life. Each little taste I've gotten was enough to get me hooked. He gives to us, that we may give to others. We can never out give Him. The more we give, the more He'll give... I want to be consumed like that too!
DeleteAmen! Normal??? Impossible! And may many more soldiers in training join the ranks! I pray that He who gave all that I might choose salvation will teach me to daily give all that they may have the opportunity to make that choice as well.
ReplyDeleteAmen! It's the only way of life that brings true satisfaction...
Delete