Dying to Live
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”
John 12:24
Pastor John’s recent book, Coronavirus & Christ, got me thinking about ways God could be using this unusual season of worldwide suffering, specifically to further the cause of global missions. In my last post I suggested seven. Today I want to dig more deeply but briefly into two of them.
- Freeing from comfort
- Focusing on Christ in the face of death
First, what if God is using this pandemic to free more and more men and women from their homes, jobs, families, and the comforts of their own culture in order to go and serve some unreached or unengaged people.
Consider that up to 200 million full-time workers throughout the world could find out in the coming days they no longer have a job. Many more than that have had hours and/or paychecks cut.
This is grievous. Maybe you’re one of them. I’m so sorry. I can’t imagine the pain and loss you’re experiencing. May God be your comfort as you take some time to grieve and process and heal.
Eventually questions will be asked, including, “In light of this loss, allowed by a sovereign and good God, now what is he calling me to do?” For some it will be waiting for their job to become available again. For some it will be a call to search for a new but similar job – possibly in another city. For some it will be an opportunity to try something new or go back to school.
I can just picture someone in that last category, as they face an uncertain future, pick up a missionary biography that stirs their heart and causes them to ask, “What if?” A couple decides to listen to an online message one Sunday that happens to be on the call to missions. By the end they are kneeling in their living room asking if God is calling them. A single woman who long ago put away the possibility of serving the unreached is suddenly compelled to search for needs on mission agency websites as she continues her job search.
God uses crisis moments to change the direction of people’s lives all the time. But what makes this special is the magnitude of it. What would happen if just one percent of those who have the potential to lose their job move their lives in the direction of reaching the world with the gospel of Christ! I’m not saying they all go overseas or serve with a mission organization directly. But imagine close to one million people who dedicate their lives in some way to world missions as a result of COVID-19!
The second way I suggest that God might be furthering the cause of global missions during this time is related to the first. The first says that crisis moments may reshape priorities in life that lead to a new vocation. The second is even more foundational. It says that crisis moments may reshape priorities that lead to new life.
The crisis moments that many are facing during this time are not only the loss of jobs, but the possible loss of their own lives. It’s often in facing the reality of our death that we evaluate eternal things (Ecclesiastes 7:2, Psalm 39:4). Is there a God? Am I accountable to him? What happens after death?
The amazing thing about this season is that the same questions are being asked no matter where you are. This virus has made the world smaller like never before. We have a shared experience across the globe that provides opportunities to guide conversations into eternal directions.
Again, I can imagine millions of people who have been confronted with eternal questions in the face of death, who are ripe for a great world-wide harvest of souls for Christ. Even more important then for thousands of Christians to be freed from their current responsibilities to be part of bringing in this harvest. Pray that it be so!
I don’t offer any of this lightly. The difficulty and pain that precede these changes in life are real and hard. But isn’t that the way God has chosen for us to truly live (John 16:33, 2 Cor. 6:10)? A grain of wheat remains alone as long as it sits on the shelf. But, falling and dying among the earth, it bears much fruit.
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