The point of the Gospel and the Church is not that we are known or lauded, rather, it is for Christ to be known. We have nothing—no life, no wisdom, no home, no spouse, no children, no future, no hope—only Yeshua. He is the only foundation stone that can be relied upon. We live in the middle ground between birth and death. It all ends in one place and there is only one way from life, through death, to the immortal place of peace. It is in all realms the same. The Christ is all. “Therefore, ‘Let God be true, and every man a liar.’” ~ Romans 3

Lessons from the Mountain

Years ago I was in a rural mountain area in an African country. The capital city was perhaps a six-hour journey through rough roads, riverbeds, and mountain switchbacks. This place had never known the modern world and its accouterments. Electricity, running water, and vehicles were a luxury. The central market was a sight, with hundreds of horses and donkeys parked in the shade of a section of pine trees near the livestock and fruit area. Motorcycles and trucks made up the rest of transportation along the main thoroughfare. Fuel vendors sold plastic bottles of various sizes filled with gasoline, diesel, and fuel oil.There was a group of small and pathetic-looking sheep at the edge of the animal market. I asked the man selling the sheep the same question I have asked many people selling sheep in those mountains over the years, “What do people do with their hair?” (There is no word in their dialect for wool). The response was the same as always. “We don’t do anything with the hair,” he said, “we just eat them.” Then I went on to explain what wool was, and what could be done with it. On that day I happened to be wearing a hat, and when I showed him that it was made from wool, he stood amazed! Then the seller used that as the basis for why I should buy all of his sheep—of course.

The Glow of the Stripped-Away Life

In these mountains people live close to the grave. Their deceased family members are buried near their homes. Suffering is not something that registers until it meets a certain threshold. Complaining about hardship and inconvenience is rarely heard, because people do not have easy chairs to get-up-out-of. These are areas in great need of development, but historically also the areas where negotiating inconvenience is a way of life. That is generally a non-starter for most would-be do-gooders coming from the West. You can see that by how many westerners prefer life in the capital city over the needs on the mountain.This proximity to the grave and true connections with inconvenience isn’t just an ‘African reality’—it is a spiritual posture that we in the West have traded for artificial light. Often when I return home from a mission in a difficult place in the world, I have felt a sense of mourning. A soft life can do terrible things to a person. You can forget God. It’s like the old adage, ‘you can’t see what you can’t see.’ It’s a difficult analogy, but perhaps you have been in the house with your family when there is a power outage in the evening. Everything that you were doing stops and you sit together with candles lit or flashlights gleaming. In those moments there is conversation and a sense of being in it together even if it’s just in a small way. However, something changes in the atmosphere and often there may almost be a sense of disappointment when the lights come back on too soon. That would be a glimpse into a more connected life, and it is something that we can cultivate. The life that people live when things get stripped away takes on a different glow. What we think is fasting and self-sacrifice, is what some people call a regular Tuesday. Many, especially the poor, go without and do it in humble resignation and naivety. Keeping our focus on the next meal or the next shiny object on our wish list is a focus that kills our connection to the true life. What if you changed your mornings to be like theirs—up at 4:30 a.m. to pray and read the scriptures before your 6:30 a.m. workday begins. That also is a regular Tuesday for many. Most of us in the West cannot relate to the hardships that the rest of the world lives every day. They make more time for God but have less time to give.

The Myth of the Individual

We come from a Western culture that has overemphasized the perspective, experience, and well-being of the self, a.k.a., the individual. We live in a culture that overemphasizes the individual. This isn’t a critique of our political freedoms, but a warning: we have become so full of ourselves that we can no longer endure hardship for the sake of the Gospel. We have become fat and sassy. We let out appetites dictate our actions or inactions. We fast from chocolate or our phone instead of living out days of hunger so we can experience a waning connection to the world and the thinning space between us and God. We trade one for the other and call in good. We cannot trust our sensibilities anymore. This is why we defer our own sense of purpose for the call of God knowing that it leads through suffering. God must increase and we must decrease. ~ John 3

An Eternal Level of Service

Now let’s be clear. We are not looking for suffering for the sake of suffering. Furthermore, when you experience a sense of purpose while we are engaged in Kingdom work, good on you! However, that is not why we do it! It’s just that we shouldn’t steer clear of suffering or set our compass towards personal fulfillment. If the Lord calls us we will march straight through, regardless of what is staring back at us. When we do encounter suffering, keep your cards close to the vest. Don’t broadcast that. People don’t need to know about us, they need to know about Him. As I stood with my family on Memorial Day last year, I felt pride and gratitude towards veterans who put themselves in harm’s way for the sake of their family, community and country. On that day, however, it dawned on me that, though these veterans deserve honor and gratitude for their sacrifice, those who sacrifice themselves for the sake of the eternal souls of their families, community and countrymen serve on an eternal level. To save a life is good. Millions of out brave countrymen have given up their lives to do so. To save an eternal soul is to secure an eternity with God. Why would be be willing to risk less? God bless our veterans have served in both regards.Let me return where I began. It doesn’t matter if people know our names. It matters if they know the name of their eternal Lord and savior. Mount up.