“What?! You’re going where?!”

Back when I was in the work force full time, I often got this kind of response when people would ask about my plans in life.  Most of the time people couldn’t believe that I would take a wife and young children to such an unsafe, unclean, and uncultured place as Africa.  I guess it’s hard for people to understand what would make me want to leave America and go half-way around the world to help people.  Well, the truth is that in many ways I don’t want to – I like the USA and thoroughly enjoy the comforts and conveniences that we have in our country and the relative safety that I have living here.  And I’m not some great humanitarian or philanthropist who willingly sacrifices his own needs and desires for the good of others, so I guess the question is a good one: “Why?”

It all started for me several years ago with a dramatic realization.  As you can read on the My Story page, I grew up in a Christian home and, for the most part, accepted the teaching that I received as a young child.  But as I grew up and began to think more on my own, I began to ask those critical questions like, “Who am I?” and “Why am I here?”  As I thought more on these questions, I formulated some answers through my study of the Bible which led me to realize several things:

1. God created me and therefore owns me.  He has the ultimate say in my life.
2. I chose/choose to ignore what God wants and do my own thing.  The Bible calls this sin.
3. Because of my sin I am under God’s wrath and will one day face Him in judgement.
4. God sent His Son, Jesus, to pay the penalty for my sin by dying on the cross so that I would not have to pay the penalty on my own.
5. When I accept by faith Jesus’ sacrifice on my behalf, my sin is forgiven and I am restored to a right relationship with God.
6. Now that God has rescued me from my sin, I have an even greater obligation to love and follow Him.
7. God desires for all of His followers to be involved in sharing His love with others and teaching them to love and follow Him.

This led me to a life-changing realization – that God created me and saved me for a purpose, and it isn’t just so that I can live a nice life.  Several books that I have come across have driven this point home to me.  The first is John Piper’s Don’t Waste Your Life in which Piper sets forth the premise that the only time a life is not wasted is when it fulfills the purpose for which it was made – and we were made to glorify God.  The second book I have not even fully read, but one particular statement really struck me from John MacArthur’s Hard to Believe: The High Cost and Infinite Value of Following Jesus.  On the back cover at the top is this statement, “Jesus didn’t die on the cross so you could have a nice day.”

Both of these books hammered home the point that life isn’t about me.  I’m here on this earth to fulfill God’s purposes, not my own; my life is to be about honoring and serving Him, not myself.  I will go because my life is not my own.  It is this truth that drives me to leave my home, my family, and my life of comfort and security and to go to Africa, not because it means a better life for me but it’s because it’s the purpose I was created for.  After all, “my” life really isn’t mine.