The Hole In Our Gospel
"Let my heart be broken with the things that break God's heart" — Bob Pierce, World Vision founder
A few months ago I read a book by Richard Stearns called The Hole in Our Gospel. It is a potentially powerful book. I say potentially because I've heard of people who've read it and weren't impacted. When I read it I was incredibly uncomfortable and challenged. Not in such a way that I was offended at all, if anything I felt convicted about what I was reading.
Stearns tells the story of how he came to be the president of World Vision. How this turned his comfortable, American-dream-loving life upside down. Some of what he writes about is very hard to read. I would go to bed at night and dream of the children of Uganda who spend every evening walking miles into the "safety" of city streets to avoid being kidnapped by the Lord's Resistance Army
(http://www.warchild.org.uk/issues/the-lords-resistance-army-LRA). In times of prayer I would see an image of a woman crying and wailing with grief upon waking and discovering her child was missing. I wept as he told the story of a woman who had been maimed by child soldiers of this army and also of the reconciliation that happened because of the power of the Holy Spirit. I tried to imagine what it must be like to spend your days trekking for water. Being hungry, tired, fearful and in many cases, orphaned.
It was a struggle for me to read that book. But I encourage you to pick it up. To allow yourself to be impacted by his stories, to see life from another perspective. We live in such comfort, convenience and peace. We don't know what it's like to be truly hungry, we struggle with having too much food, and using it in the wrong way. Inconvenience is our worst enemy. We are frustrated when we can't find a parking space close to the door or if what we want to eat isn't on hand in our house.
I've thought about the above quote a lot over the last number of months, but I should tell you I cannot bring myself to pray it. I'm afraid to. But I feel as though I am moving closer towards it. I want to ask the hard questions of myself, I want the Lord to put a magnifying glass on the places of my heart that have become complacent and comfortable. The Gospel is not about my comfort and contentment. It's about me submitting to the Lordship of Christ and living out the Kingdom of God here on earth. How can I do that? What does that look like and what sacrifices do I need to make? I want His love to pour from me into others. I want my life to look radically different than it does now. I want my faith to be full of action. I don't merely want to know it, I want to live it.
A few months ago I read a book by Richard Stearns called The Hole in Our Gospel. It is a potentially powerful book. I say potentially because I've heard of people who've read it and weren't impacted. When I read it I was incredibly uncomfortable and challenged. Not in such a way that I was offended at all, if anything I felt convicted about what I was reading.
Stearns tells the story of how he came to be the president of World Vision. How this turned his comfortable, American-dream-loving life upside down. Some of what he writes about is very hard to read. I would go to bed at night and dream of the children of Uganda who spend every evening walking miles into the "safety" of city streets to avoid being kidnapped by the Lord's Resistance Army
(http://www.warchild.org.uk/issues/the-lords-resistance-army-LRA). In times of prayer I would see an image of a woman crying and wailing with grief upon waking and discovering her child was missing. I wept as he told the story of a woman who had been maimed by child soldiers of this army and also of the reconciliation that happened because of the power of the Holy Spirit. I tried to imagine what it must be like to spend your days trekking for water. Being hungry, tired, fearful and in many cases, orphaned.
It was a struggle for me to read that book. But I encourage you to pick it up. To allow yourself to be impacted by his stories, to see life from another perspective. We live in such comfort, convenience and peace. We don't know what it's like to be truly hungry, we struggle with having too much food, and using it in the wrong way. Inconvenience is our worst enemy. We are frustrated when we can't find a parking space close to the door or if what we want to eat isn't on hand in our house.
I've thought about the above quote a lot over the last number of months, but I should tell you I cannot bring myself to pray it. I'm afraid to. But I feel as though I am moving closer towards it. I want to ask the hard questions of myself, I want the Lord to put a magnifying glass on the places of my heart that have become complacent and comfortable. The Gospel is not about my comfort and contentment. It's about me submitting to the Lordship of Christ and living out the Kingdom of God here on earth. How can I do that? What does that look like and what sacrifices do I need to make? I want His love to pour from me into others. I want my life to look radically different than it does now. I want my faith to be full of action. I don't merely want to know it, I want to live it.
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