Sharing in Comfort

Sometimes I think we forget how much we do in our own strength. In our self-sufficient society, it’s so easy to forget.

We don’t think twice about driving to the grocery store to get groceries and make meals, or the fact that we’re even driving and get to fill our car up with gas. Many places around the world don’t have that luxury.

Something else we try to be self-sufficient in is comfort. Whether it’s giving comfort to someone who has experienced a loss, or trying to comfort our own selves, we tend to do it our own way, often with poor or embarrassing results.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.” 2 Corinthians 1:3-7

Do you notice in the previous passage who is REALLY doing the comforting for us believers? It’s God. He often uses other believers to do it, but ultimately it’s HIM comforting us. And what is the purpose of that comfort? It’s not so we can feel better about ourselves (although that’s a wonderful by-product). It’s specifically so we can comfort others who are “in any affliction”.

Suffering and death is a part of life we like to gloss over and sanitize in the West. It’s the reason why funeral homes exist. We don’t want to deal with dead bodies. But in remote tribal areas, such amenities are not available. Tribal people deal with and bury their own dead. There is no home to send the body to. There are no nice clothes to pick out, or makeup to put on so it looks like they’re sleeping. No, they deal with death in very real and sometimes harsh ways. As non-believers (yet), they don’t have the God of all comfort, comforting them.

When missionaries serve in a tribal context, death is one of the hardest realities they deal with. But as they have been comforted through Christ, so can they in turn offer true comfort to the hurting ones left behind, opening a door to share the Gospel. Years later, when a tiny church has been born, and the first believer dies, what a difference there is as they now rejoice in a believer’s home-going. As they were comforted, they can now comfort the hurting. The truth of 1 Corinthians 15:54-57 now resonates with them,

“When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Is HE Worth It?

Our family is in the stage of ministry, where we are doing our initial support-raising, for our first term in Paraguay.  My husband is American, and I’m Canadian.  Our children are dual citizens, and we chose to do our training in Canada.  Now, as we’re getting ready to do a fairly big ministry partnership development trip, we have a lot of paperwork to do.  Times two.  Everything we do for the US, we have to do for Canada.  That includes 2 tax-returns each year, two sets of ID for each of the kids, keeping track of bank accounts in both countries, and a host of other things.  Now, we’ll have to add a third country to the list.  Visa’s, shots, country ID’s, international drivers’ licenses, not to mention finding a place to live and EVERYTHING that goes along with that.

Today I was feeling quite overwhelmed with all we have to get done in order to serve in another country.  I’ll be honest, for a moment I thought, why are we doing all this?  This is so much paperwork and money.  Is it really worth it?  And I realized that that question goes right to where my heart is.  Focused on me.  I want to be comfortable. I want my own way.  I don’t want to have to do things that are hard.  For a split second I thought, what if we just went back to Florida, served in our church and community there, and we’ll be good?

But GOD.  Right after the selfish thought came another one, and another one.  “Did you think this would be easy?  Did you think I wasn’t aware of all you would have to do to take my Name to the ends of the earth?“  In His quiet, gentle way, God reminded me once again why we are doing what we’re doing.  We’re not simply raising money so we can take our family to another country and have a great experience, although it will be.  We’re not going to learn another language because we thought it’d look good on our kids’ college applications, although it probably will.  We’re not moving to a third-world country so we can make ourselves look good by serving some of the poorest of the poor.

No, we’re going because God is calling us to proclaim His name among the nations, just like He calls ALL Christians to do.  So why go to another country, instead of doing that calling in North America?  Because we want to proclaim the Gospel where it is not easily accessible.  There is so much available for people to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ.  From radio, TV, internet, books, conferences, the list is almost endless.  But in much of the rest of the world?  Not so much.  So what about the places in the world where Christians are not only a tiny minority, some have NO Christians to even proclaim the good news.  Romans 10:13-15 speaks to this dilemma.  “for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.  How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

So, we will go.  We will do the hard things, the mundane things, the required things, in order to take the Gospel to those who have never heard.  Jesus IS worth it.  We will join God in the Impossible.  Will you?