God’s Dangerous Will

I just spent the day yesterday with some other staff members at AIM responding to the fact that one of our First Year Missionary participants in South Africa was killed in an automobile accident. In the midst of getting the details of what happened, working to make sure the team in Africa is cared for, contacting the family, and praying, I found myself thinking about the cost associated with obedience.  This wasn’t an instance of martyrdom in the sense that you and I think about martyrs. However, a life was lost as a result of obedience to an understanding of God’s will and and call. I’ve not spent much time asking why. I know that on this side of eternity, there may not be a good answer.   What I do know is that God is sovereign and in His sovereignty He allowed this tragedy to happen.

I’ve thought a lot about the parents in the last 24 hours. I can’t imagine their pain. I think often about the parents who send their kids on our mission trips. I know that they are concerned for the safety of their kids. It’s natural. You send your 18 year old half way around the world and as a parent, you worry. You understand that something could happen to them. But you move from that quickly, because the possibility of that happening is remote. And then it happens. As I spent the day working through the aftermath of this tragedy, it occurred to me that God doesn’t have us playing games. Yesterday death reached up and took one of our missionaries. I know God was and is sovereign in the midst of that, but a price was paid today. If we’re going to be in the center of God’s will we will find ourselves in danger and the consequences might be our lives. I’ve heard it said many times, “The center of God’s will is the safest place you can be.” How completely untrue that is. The martyrs would tell you that God’s will is a dangerous place to be. God has sent us as ambassadors into a world that is in opposition to Him. It is dangerous for us to be in His will and in obedience we take risks.

This summer my 15 year old son, Ryan, will spend 5 weeks in Mexico serving our mission teams. As a parent I think about worst case scenarios. I understand that something could happen to him. I have a choice. Do I allow my son to be in a situation that God would use to make him look more like Jesus? Do I do that in spite of the known dangers or do I opt out of the danger and keep him home this summer? Yesterday I came face to face with the starkness of the possibilities. God reminded me of the cost that might be required and has asked me to choose. I choose to opt in to the danger. I choose to risk something for the upward call of Christ. I choose not to take the safe road that leads to complacency. I choose the danger that exists within the will of the Father. I’m not sure how this will sound, but I’d rather my son die in the midst of obediently responding to God’s plan for him, than to live a safe, mediocre life that is an affront to the reality of who he is: an heir of the King, called to wage a battle for the establishment of the Kingdom of the King. So I will let Ryan go to Mexico this summer and I’ll pray for two things. I’ll pray for his safety, but I’ll also pray that God begins to awaken him to his destiny and that he begins to embrace the danger inherent in obedience.