Romans 5:7 “For one will scarcely die for a righteous person – though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die.”
Have you ever thought about what you would be doing 5 years from now, or 10 years, or even 20 years from now? Are you the type of person that has your life all mapped out? I was out walking in my neighborhood the other day and thinking back over my life and the plans I had made for it years ago. I got engaged in college and pursued an accounting degree so had a course set in my mind, marriage followed by a great business career. My life started out just as I had planned. If someone had told me that I would do mission work or write in the future I would have laughed. These were not items I had ever imagined or planned to do.
As a Child, I attended church and accepted Christ into my life at an early age. I prayed and believed in Christ but He was more of a safety net for me and not part of my daily life, especially if things were going well. That is until God allowed something major to happen that would get my attention and change my world. That major event was the birth of our third child, our son William. That happy time soon turned tragic with his death 9 days later. Nothing prepares you for the death of your child. Through all the grieving and chaos, I soon realized that the most important and constant thing in my life was my relationship with Christ. He was all I had to cling to during those days and He was with me and carried through those days. As the fog of grief slowly lifted from my life, I decided I would follow Christ more closely and deepen my relationship with Him.
Romans 8:31: “What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?”
But how far was I willing to follow Christ in my new, deeper relationship? What would it cost me to follow Him more closely? I think we all draw lines in the sand when it comes to how far we are willing to go for Christ. I remember one friend, years ago, saying she was scared that if she followed Christ He would ask her to stand on a street corner in a yellow polka dot bikini and preach the gospel. She was joking of course but it did give me reason to pause and think. How far would I go to serve Christ?
So here I am over 20 years later and looking back at where God has taken me on this journey. I accepted His call on my life to go on a mission trip to Haiti in 1997. That Haiti trip also showed my husband the importance of mission work and that he too should be a part of this calling. That trip lead to other trips. Then those trips lead us to helping orphans affected by the AIDS epidemic in Kenya. We built an orphanage in Kenya. That orphanage taught us many things and helped us to open other orphanages. We opened orphanages in Nepal and Myanmar to help keep children from being sold into human trafficking. What If I had drawn a line in the sand with Christ to say I didn’t want to travel outside my comfort zone. I would have missed all of the joys, trails and growth from those experiences. I would have also missed out on all those beautiful smiling faces that live in the homes Christ allowed us to build.
2 Peter 1:10: “Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble,”
The story now continues as I feel I am being called to write about our journey with Christ. Writing is putting me so far out of my comfort zone. Other than writing for my college classes, I have never thought it was something I wanted to do. But I am following this new call and struggling to learn about it and to work it out. I may not be very good at writing but I feel I must obey the calling and God will provide the skills, so please persevere with my attempts to capture His stories. What if I draw a line in the sand and say no to writing the stories of His mighty works in my life. What would I miss out on with this new mission? I don’t know where this will take me but I am excited and a little scared to obey and follow the path.
Where is your line in the sand? What are you willing to do for Christ? What are you not willing to do for Him? I think about this for myself also. So far, I have been able, by Christ’s strength, to do the missions He set aside for me. But I wonder if Christ ask me to be martyred for His sake, would I be able? For now, I know I am to continued on this path He has shown to me. I pray for Christ’s wisdom to deal with whatever the future holds for me.
Take a chance, step out and cross the line you have drawn. Christ will meet you there and you will not be sorry.
Yvonne
Matthew 28:19 “Therefore, GO and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”
