So often it is easy to waste away time, to think that you can do that tomorrow or that the next day will be soon enough. Many times this is okay, it doesn’t negatively affect your life and problems don’t result from it. But what happens if we let this way of thinking ooze over into our whole life and mind? What if when we start thinking about doing what we know we should do and acting and living how we know we should in this fashion, that tomorrow is soon enough or that when we get to it will be soon enough? What happens if we start to view the sharing of the Gospel in this fashion?
This happens to us all. We walk to life committed to share what we believe with everyone. We honestly take scripture to heart when it says “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season…” (2 Tim. 4:2) and “…always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect.” (1 Peter 3:15) We say this is how we should live. We proclaim that this is how we are going to live. And then we hit the world and somehow all that passion, all that conviction, all that desire to follow through melts away. The idea of actually standing up for what we believe and being vocal about our God and Savior all of the sudden doesn’t seem so important in the face of possible ridicule and harassment. How can the very center of who we are and our very lives all of the sudden become not as important to us as what people think about us and how they treat us?
This happens to all of us. I can be feeling bad or tired and not want to talk to people about the greatest single thing in this whole universe. How messed up is that? How can we ever claim to be too tired or too distracted from talking about the single greatest person, event, belief that we can possibly have? I don’t know, but it happens. In fact, if I am honest, which is something I like to do every now and then, I would have to say that I don’t have to be tired or feeling bad. Sometimes I am just too lazy, or just don’t care enough to share. When I think about that I cannot help but think how messed up and sad that is. I, who claim to be a Christ follower, a person who lives and breaths because of Christ, who has salvation and hope and joy and peace because of Jesus, I who has dedicated my whole life to service to the Lord, sometimes can’t seem to find the motivation to share the Gospel with those around me. It is enough to make a person cry. And the fact of the matter is that we all should be crying.
I don’t say this to make people feel bad. I don’t say this to show how we all still need Christ and that we need to have a fire set under our butts. I say this because it is a fact that we need to reorganize what we value in this life. Which do we value more… sharing who Jesus is with people or what they think of us and how they treat us? Answering that question will determine how you respond to this whole note.
What got me thinking along these lines was a book called “Words to Winners of Souls” by Horatius Bonar. (which is one of my favorite names) In this book he talks about a revival breaking out in Scotland. This happened during a time of plague where many people were dying and the clergy had fled the cities. Because the clergy had run away, lay people stepped up to preach. “Then did they stand up in the midst of the dying and the dead, to proclaim eternal life to men who were expecting death before the morrow… Every sermon might be their last.” And then one of the best lines and questions ever.. “Truly they preached as dying men to dying men. But the question is, Should it ever be otherwise?” All of us, all of humanity is dying. Why are we arrogant and think that there is going to be a tomorrow. If we truly cared about spreading the Gospel and sharing whom Christ is, we have to have this mindset. We have to think of ourselves as dying men preaching to dying men.
So what is your mindset?
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