In my last post, the passage in question was Luke 9:57-62:
57 As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”
58 Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”59 He said to another man, “Follow me.”
But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”
60 Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”
61 Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.”
62 Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”
I just have to go back to this. I've seen a living, breathing example of it, and it is going to change my life. For the better.
Here's the back story. Thirteen years ago, I went with a team from UNA on my first foreign mission trip. I was a college sophomore, and I traveled (by myself) to Tampere, Finland for six weeks of studying English and the Bible with students there. That one experience shaped me in ways that I can't even begin to describe, but suffice it to say that there's no way that I would be where I am today if I hadn't stepped out on that journey. The missionaries there were Arnold and Wanda Pylkas, an older American couple who had devoted their retirement years to planting a church in the city.
Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago. One of my teammates sent out a message that Arnold was in bad health, and he proposed that we take a trip to Searcy to visit him before it was too late. A couple of date changes and a couple of drop outs later, Matt, our teammate Greg and I loaded up and took off. The trip was tons of fun, laughing and telling stories about learning how to take a Finnish sauna, the KKKMart (honest-to-goodness name of our local grocery store), and how bad the boys' hotel room smelled.
But the real experience started when we walked into Arnold and Wanda's home. Arnold is bedridden now, and a stroke has left him with limited communication. Wanda is his fulltime caregiver. And their home was one of the most joyful places I have ever been. They talked and laughed and teased and hugged. They thanked God, over and over and over again, for the day. They never once complained.
Wanda said, "This [time] is one of the highlights of our lives... being together, right here at the end." Talk about a lesson. Their beautiful spirit made an impact on me that I will never forget. They spent their entire lives following where the Lord led them. They truly gave up all for his sake... giving up their leisurely retirement years to labor in one of the hardest works in the entire world. And now, as they come to the end of their journey, they can look back at all they have done, and all the Lord has done for them, and have peace. You could very literally feel it in their home and in their presence.
The LORD is ever mindful of his servants. He has blessed us beyond measure. But what are we willing to give up for him? I'm afraid that, too often, the answer is not much. We won't even give up a TV show, or a singer we like, or our too-short shorts. When we can't do the smallest things, how can we possibly expect to give up the big things to follow him? I challenge you to take a good, hard look at what you've been given, and take a long look at what's holding you back from following God with all of your heart.
I plan to do the same.
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