If you are like me, thinking about being a Christian is exciting for you (most of the times), your priorities are love “'till death do us part,” your own quietness, peace, happiness, good fame, financial success, miracles, and your helping of others. If you are like me, you try to take the most out of preachings and the Bible, in order to feed all of those thoughts that motivate you to do God’s will. You’ve left everything behind and have taken radical decisions to follow what God told you to do, and you did.
But, don’t mind all of that, because right now, in this moment of your life, you are disappointed and hopeless; and that deal "God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect” (Rom. 12:2 NLT) has not been easy to do at all, and has not been neither good, nor pleasing, nor perfect. You are back against the wall with critics of family and friends because there seems to be no results. And then, you ask yourself, “Is it worth it to do this? Did I do something wrong? Am I really doing what God told me to do? Because the things that I thought were going to happen are not really happening.
We fall in love with the idea of being spouses, parents, pastors or missionaries, and we let ourselves be dazzled by what we think life will be; but we must foresee and reckon what the cost of following Christ really is (Luke 14:28-29). There is another side of the coin of following Christ, one that is rarely addressed: being like Jesus implies humiliating yourself, forgiving others, sacrificing for others, suffering, and even dying.
A story:
In 2005, the movie “End of the Spear” was released. This movie tells the true story about five American missionaries who try to evangelize the most violent tribe in the West hemisphere: the Huaorani of Ecuador. The five missionaries, including Jim Eliot and Nate Saint, died pierced by spears in the hands of this tribe. This story is told by the son of Nate Saint, only five years old when his dad died, and by Mincaye, the man who killed Nate Saint. The five missionaries died without having even spoken to the tribe.
Die for nothing? That does not make any sense!:
The missionaries probably thought that the tribe was going to be evangelized, at least that was the promise God had given the missionaries…everything was supposed to go right, and they were supposed to be successful, right?
What happened? Does this makes sense to you?
Well, it is very confusing to me. I do not know what I would have done if I were either one of the widows or daughters of those brave missionaries. I can't really put myself in their shoes, and in the midst of the pain I would say things like: were they wrong? It was not worth it, did God really spoke to us? It wasn’t supposed to end like this.
The last chapter has not been written:
Two years after this tragedy, Jim Eliot’s wife, Elizabeth, and Nate Saint’s sister, Rachel, moved to Ecuador to live in the midst of the men that had murdered the men they loved. The Huarani were touched by Jesus because they did not see vengeance desires in the women, but rather unconditional love, acceptance, and forgiveness. Sixty years later, the Huarani converted to Christians including the killers of the five missionaries.
Now, we understand God's purpose, and we see His hand over everything. I am sure it was not easy for the widows, the children, and the family of those missionaries. Thinking that the men had died and had not left a legacy must have been very painful.
To be humiliated, to forgive, to sacrifice, to suffer, and to die is part of God’s good, pleasing, and perfect will for us. This is used by God to touch the heart of those who can't see Jesus, but can surely see us. It is God who helps us, and puts in our hearts with joy in midst of the pain. ”Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me” (Psalm 23).
Yes, God’s will is good, and pleasing, and perfect. But that does not mean that we will not have to go through difficult moments or that His will will happen as we imagine it. God’s plans are long term, and even though the enemy puts himself in the Way, God knows that our victory is a fact.
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