Out There Starts Here

Africa, India, China, Vanuatu, Russia, Mongolia, Fiji, Cuba, North Korea, Uzbekistan, Tibet, Sudan. Orphans, trafficked women, job-less men, starving families, children sold as slaves, the injured, the hurting, those who have no hope, the hope-less. They move our hearts by their tears, by their need. We open our hands and offer them our money to buy the things we need. We open our hearts to love them and cheer them. We open our lives to help them. We open our houses by watching them on TV, looking at pictures, reading about them and the people who labour for them. They dwell in our hearts and our prayers.

Australia. The Blessed Country. I was reflecting yesterday about how we are so blessed to have never had a civil war on our soil, nor any war for that matter. Australia is a peaceful country, probably partly because of our isolation in being an island, but also I believe God's protection. But there are still needy people. Our lives aren't torn by the horrors of war but by the horrors of life. So we give money to the charities, we go on mission trips, we pray for them, we love them.

Great! Mankind all over the world is crying and dying. They all need help! But...

Could it be that sometimes we miss the point? Could it be that our eyes are trained so 'out there' that we forget about 'here'? Could it be that God is calling us to do something HERE?

I'm not saying that nobody should go on mission trips, nobody should give of their resources to help humanity, nobody should work for God overseas. No way! There are those who are called to be missionaries in foreign countries, mission trips are an amazing way to refocus my life and learn to be truly grateful for what God has blessed me with, and what God has blessed me with is given to be shared!

But there are also those of us who go to church each week, pray for the missionary every night, watch the mission spotlight faithfully, and toss the loose change from our wallets into the plush velvet offering bag. Then we go home, switch on 3ABN and watch an 'inspiring' documentary about the missionaries in India and fall into bed exhausted. Back to work on Monday to make more money for...well...I won't go there. Is that enough? Is it?

Look around before you throw that loose change into the offering bag. How well do you know the woman across the isle who always comes alone? She always slips in late and by the time you get out of your pew to greet the pastor, she's gone. You don't know whether she even stays for the benedictory hymn. Or the young man with the tats up his right arm and dreadies? Or the business man that says "happy Sabbath" every week, preaches occasionally and takes great Sabbath School lessons but minds his own business other then that. Of course you know them? But do you really know them? What's going on in their life?

You come home from church and flop onto the bed. Yeah. Your two young boys head straight out side to their tree-house and your teenage daughter plugs in her iPhone and pulls out her lap-top. Moments later, there is no noise from outside and only a quiet tap-tap-tap  from the bedroom. Have you made it up into that tree-house? What do the boys play and talk about up there? Who is your daughter talking to? What is going on in her life lately that is dramatically moulding the way she things?

But it's not just 'those' church members that are like that. The other evening, I had a phone call from someone I hardly know. I was tired, very tired, I was feeling down because...well, I was missing some people...anyway...I didn't want to talk. But she rang me, she just wanted to see how Mum and Dad and the kids were going (she knows them more then me). I asked how she was going. "Not great." I was taken back. She told me she was pregnant. I was taken back again. What could I say? I mean, she's not married so is that a good thing (to her) or a bad thing? She's hurting. But what could I say? Looking back now, I'm ashamed: I didn't say anything. I should have. But I haven't cultivated the culture of doing this kind of thing naturally.

Then there was the girl I met in town the other week. I've known her for a few years, on and off but never gotten really close to her. She was struggling with a change in her life that had thrown her into a new group of people who she didn't feel an affinity with. That was hard on her. I pray that in our very short conversation I was able to encourage her somehow, just a little bit. And I hope that life has settled down for her somewhat in the last few days.

So it's me too. I look around at my family, my closest friends, the children I have influence over, the people who I live and work with and I ask myself "do I know them?" Could it be that my 'out there' really does, start here?

"Lord, make me faithful in ministering to those closest to me. Don't let my vision be so focused on the 'out there' that I cannot see what I am missing out on here. Help me to open my heart to those around me so that in being faithful in the little things, I can become faithful in the great things. Amen"