Opportunity is Everywhere

By Steve Saint

I have been thinking a great deal recently (The last 50 years come to think of it) about how we Christ followers should respond to the hurts and concerns of the world around us. When tragedies strike around us, to use Francis Schaefer's words, "how shall we then live"? The most recent natural catastrophe in our news was the devastating earthquake in Nepal. But by the time you are reading this, it will probably have been replaced by another typhoon, volcanic eruption, or tsunami. The people in California are concerned with the recent oil spill that is coating their beaches and wildlife with globs of oil sludge. Just inland from there, the agricultural heartland in California is in its third year of severe drought. There is flooding in parts of Texas and the Midwest. Nationally, we are all aware of the drastic moral upheavals in LGBT issues, including a likely ruling by the Supreme Court of a constitutional right to gay marriage. There is a push for homosexual Boy Scout troop leaders, and the almost inevitable coming loss of religious freedom to 'erotic liberty'. Europeans are concerned about the bankrupt financial condition of Greece, Spain, and Italy, as well as their declining population and the possible breakup of the European Union. Wars are active in Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, Mali, and Yemen. Saber rattling is regularly taking place in China, North Korea, and Iran. Persecution of Muslims by other Muslim sects seems to be taking place in most Middle Eastern countries, and persecution of Muslims by Buddhists has left thousands stranded at sea with no safe destination. Persecution of Christians in Egypt, Palestine, India, Syria, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, North Korea, and China is pandemic. The point is that we are ambassadors for Christ as Paul puts it in his second letter to the Christ followers in Corinth (chapter 5, verse, 20). When people are hungry, thirsty, strangers, naked, sick, or in jail we have an incredible opportunity to meet their needs. And in doing so, Jesus says that we are caring for Him (Matthew 25:35-40). A huge portion of the world's population lives in need of food, clean water, shelter, clothing, health care, and compassion. And, more people are being added to those categories like an avalanche of humanity. The good news is that more need means more opportunity for us to represent Christ to them; however the need is so great that it is going to require us to take more risk. We are going to have to give up some of our security and our leisure time. It's time to swim in the ocean, instead of wading in the shallows.