This week I gave the devotional for our Crisis Response “all-staff” online meeting. I thought you might enjoy this lightly edited version of what I shared.
Twenty or more years ago I attended a District pastors conference where the speaker was a guy named Bill Mills, who focused on the training of pastors both in the U.S. and overseas. He talked about his book “Finishing Well In Life and Ministry.” One of the things in that book has stuck with me all these years. He was writing about expectations of God in ministry and God’s call to persevere. He said:
“We need to know that one of the reasons we must endure is because God is greatly inefficient in His Person, His ways and His works. Somehow we have come to believe that heaven functions like a ‘great, eternal IBM corporation,’ but it is not so. Nothing about God is ever ‘measured out’; everything about Him and His work is ‘poured out.’”
John 10:10 Jesus says “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”
1 Timothy 1:14 and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
1 John 3:1 (NIV) How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!
God is extravagantly wasteful is in the pouring out of his Son’s life for our rescue. The Son was eternally God, eternally enthroned, King of kings, perfectly sinless, of infinite worth, yet he was poured out for sinners like you and me. The price he paid was not just sufficient for the debt we owed, but infinitely more.
The woman at Bethany who anointed Jesus from an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment knew something of this worth. But the disciples, when they saw it were indignant, saying, “Why this waste? 9For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor.” “Look how much more effectively this value could have been used.” That’s the kind of thing we say. But Jesus says“Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. 8For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.” This pouring out was a picture of the extravagant pouring out Jesus would do on the cross.
Still, in our own lives and ministry we are prone to ask: “Why this waste?”
Think of what it takes to set up a full-scale response site: tools, vehicles, materials, a tool trailer, a shower trailer, possibly a bunk trailer, plumbing and sewer modifications, RV hook-ups, all kinds of stuff. Then there is the staff, a precious resource, each of whom has labored to raise funding so that they can be on the mission field. Volunteers and adjunct staff pay good money and take precious vacation time to travel to the response site. Not to mention ministry leadership and support staff.
Bottom line is this: just as you can’t calculate or even grasp how much God poured out from himself to rescue us, you also can’t calculate, in dollars or any other unit, the amount poured out by our ministry to reach any given homeowner. Maybe all this time and money and energy and prayer will lead that homeowner to ask why in a way that allows the Gospel to be shared. Maybe God will lead that homeowner or his neighbor to trust Jesus as Savior. Maybe they will get involved in Bible Study, and grow in faith, and become part of a church.
But does this happen often? Not as often as we’d like. There may be only a few changed lives as a result of a whole response. Maybe only one (and yet that one may be the person sitting across from you!) Is this enough to justify the resources?
The thought I want to leave you with is that God’s economy is not like ours. God is extravagantly wasteful. God is greatly inefficient in his use of resources. Partially this is because he has infinite resources. But more than that, he infinitely values each life, each person, and is willing to go to every extreme to rescue that person. God demonstrates his love for us in this: while we were worthless sinners, Christ died for us. The shepherd goes out in search of one sheep and rejoices when that sheep is found.
So first, we need to recognize that sometimes our ministry may seem fruitful, while at other times we won’t see many visible changes. We need to take an upside-down, God’s economy point of view – God is working out His purpose and he doesn’t mind using a lot of his resources and ours to accomplish it, to find that one sheep.
But, second, we need to be extravagantly grateful for every changed life we see: every changed homeowner, every changed neighbor, every changed volunteer, every changed staff person. If God is willing to pour out everything to change lives, we should at least be greatly grateful.