"Not the better half!"

My new friend, Emily, recently moved to Tulsa after two incredible mission trips.  First was her "World Race" trip -- 11 countries in 11 months -- WOW!  Then she went to Spain for 3 months.  I loved reading through her blog detailing the stories.  I am so impressed simply with the willingness to sacrifice your own comfort... I was cringing just reading about the huge bugs, leeches, scorpions, the intense heat, strange foods, camping, bathing in the river, etc.  In her first post, she explains how she was called to missions, and stated that she never thought it would happen, as she never felt "worthy" to travel the world as a missionary.  That really struck me as awesome -- no wonder God chose to send her.  The humble attitude that it is truly an honor for God to call you and send you to foreign missions, a privilege to travel and sacrifice your comfort and spend your energy serving Him and others -- that is the heart of Christ.  I've never thought of missions quite that way before, but I loved it.  It doesn't sound "fun" to completely lose sight of ourselves and our own comfort and live life with the mindset that others are more important, but we should all consider it an honor, purely because the call comes from a God who loves us and believes in us!!  

"You are My friends if you obey Me... I command you to love each other."  ~John 15:14,17

I've been thinking a lot lately about all the people who are lost and hurting, people who need encouragement and need to be shown the love of God!  I am so comfy in my Christian circles of awesome, fun friends that I tend to lose sight of all the people in need.  When I was thinking about all this and how God must view it, this scene from Titanic (no surprise there) came to mind:

"Don't you understand?  Half the people on this ship are going to die!"  -Rose
"Not the better half!"  -Cal

Ugh, it's obvious that he is arrogant and callous and ignorant, and that being rich clearly does not make him any better than the "third class" passengers.  

But seriously, over half the people in our world today do not know God.  Even more than that are hurting or broken or suffering in some way.  To be indifferent and ignore them is just as bad as Cal's arrogant comment.  For any Christian to live with the casual attitude that as long as you and those you know well are headed for heaven, why go out of your way to witness to strangers -- as long as you and your family are healthy and comfortable, why spend your free time in hospitals or homeless shelters caring for those who are suffering -- that is so NOT the heart of God!  And that is not my heart either... but it's obviously much easier for us to spend our time being busy with family and church friends or even just being lazy than to face the fear of stepping out of our comfort zone.  Perfect love casts out fear and puts others first! 

Again with Titanic, Rose isn't willing to sit quietly in her cozy little lifeboat while she knows Jack is probably going to die.  She jumps right back out, willing to risk her own life because she loves him.  Well, Jesus loves the world with more passion than that -- He shows no partiality and certainly does not see me or you or any particular nation or race as "the better half" of the world -- He desires that no one should perish and that we all would be with Him in heaven!!!

I am in love with Him, and my love for others is growing!  I know He will empower me to love people as He loves them, to do whatever it takes to show them that their lives are valuable, and to introduce them to a God who loves them and is able to save them from eternal death! 

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE... that is God's heart, and that is my goal!