As I was laying in bed the other morning I started thinking about all the stuff we’ve got going on. Laying there, I started going down the mental checklist in my mind and was prioritizing everything that needed to get done. Then I started thinking about where we were and what we were doing. Me and my family are actually in a foreign country, we don’t speak the language, we’re in a remote part of Brazil instead of a heavily populated city, and in my mind it doesn’t make sense! I mean, it would make more sense for us to be in the big city (where i’m more comfortable) starting a “city church” with a lot of audio/video stuff, where we reach people through technology, marketing and programming... like I’m equipped to do. Not tucked away in the mountainous jungles of some obscure state in the 5th largest country in the world. A place where, rather than having thousands or millions of people crowding the streets, where I live people are spread out all over the mountain with acres and acres that separate neighbors from each other.
As I laid there thinking about how this doesn’t make any sense and the reality of where I was, 2 things hit me:
The first thing was that God likes doing things that don’t make sense to us. From what I can tell, it’s because that way He gets the glory for it rather than us. Because there’s no way we could do it without His power and His ability. Think about all the people God used in the Bible. Abraham was a century old, with no kids, and God told him that he was going to be the father of many nations and he eventually was (and is). Moses was a stutterer but God wanted him to be the mouthpiece for His people. David was a shepherd kid, not royalty, but God wanted him to be the king. All the disciples were jacked-up in their own way. None of them were religious leaders, but God chose them to literally turn the world upside down with the Gospel. And what about Paul? It would have made more sense for him to be sent to the Jews not the Gentiles. He was a Jewish leader, trained to be a leader of the Jewish people. What better or more equipped person than him to reach the Jews for Christ? But no, God sent him to the Gentiles instead. It doesn’t make sense... to me, that is. But to God it does. The same with us. Why not have us somewhere where we can operate in “the lane” that we know and where we’re trained?! I don’t know? But God does and that’s why He sent us here. Because for us to be successful for the Kingdom, it’s gonna take His strength and ability to make it happen.
The 2nd thing I thought about was that God cares about “the one” just as much as He cares about the masses. Sure, He could’ve sent us to some big city somewhere (preferably in the US) to start a church where we could use all the gifts and experience we already had. We could have gone somewhere where the population was booming, but He had other plans. And it’s because He loves the one guy whose never heard about Jesus that’s tucked away in a remote part of the world just as much as the guy who passes a church on every corner in his hometown. It was weird (and I hope I’m conveying this effectively), but it really gripped my heart the other morning as I laid there thinking. It’s like I could feel the love that God had for “individuals” rather than just “crowds.” And it was enough love to have Him move a family from the US, to the other side of the equator, just to give people an opportunity to hear about Jesus and the Gospel. These people could live and die and hardly anyone would even notice or care. But God cares. They’re important to Him. And that’s why it’s OK that we’re here and not some place where I feel more comfortable... because God cares about the One.
Passionately Following Jesus,
Jim
PS - The picture at top is of our house. It's the one way back in the distance (not the one in front)... we're definitely out there in the middle of nowhere, huh?
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