"Living when dying is gain"

"Living when dying is gain" is the title of the eight chapter in David Platt's book Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream.  In that chapter, Platt treat "the risk and reward of the radical life."  It explores the implications of Jesus words, "Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." (Matthew 10:39).

To be on mission with Jesus involves high risk.  His call to the disciples to "heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, and drive out demons" was not a call to a safe and comfortable church huddle.  It is an invitation to go where the diseased, the dying, the despised and the dangerous are.

As our pastoral staff discussed this chapter earlier this week in our staff retreat, we were reminded of the reason Pastor Rolando Aguirre was not with us.  He came back from an exploratory mission trip to Chiapas having contracted Typhoid Fever and was still not well enough to join our retreat this week.  We are grateful that he is recovering well and he is expected to be back behind the pulpit of the Spanish service this Sunday.  Of course, there are lessons that we learned from this incident that will help us take better precautions for future mission trips. 

As I visited in Rolando’s home yesterday, I asked him about his participation for the trip to the Amazon this summer.  Enthusiastically, he said, "I should be ready to go by then."  The trip to the Amazon will offer very similar conditions to the trip he took to Chiapas.  Why is he not staying away from these places that have the risk of disease?  Should this not be a lesson for us to keep our mission trips to “safer” places?

Matthew 10:39 reminds us that to be in the middle of God’s will sometimes involves risking our very lives, not to mention our comfort and safety.  It does not mean that we will be negligent or that we will not take necessary precautions.  But it also does not mean that we will stop going where He has called us to go.

Jim Elliot who God called to go to the Huaroni people in the jungles of Ecuador said, “he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep in order to gain what he cannot lose.”  He was beheaded by the Huaorani but the tribe eventually came to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Last night I booked the plane ticket for my sixteen-year-old daughter Rachel to go to Panama where she will be in the jungle with the Kuna people.  Why would she give up two weeks of her summer to go to an island where there is no electricity and no running water?  Because she loves God and because she loves the Kuna people.  Is it risky? Yes.  Is it uncomfortable? Yes.  But I could not stop her from going because she understands what it means to “find life” by being willing to give it away.

Neither can we keep Rolando from going on future mission trips.  Neither will we stop going where it is risky and dangerous.  We will learn.  We will take precautions.  But we will “find life” by giving ours away as we go where he sends us.