I want someone to write a book called Leaving the 99.
The more scripture you read, and the closer you get to Jesus, the more you realize how he aches for every single person he has created. He adores them; he smiles at the thought of them. At the thought of the one.
Athens has been named a "launching pad". Being a college town, it's no wonder that people come and go constantly. But it's more than that- this beautiful little town in the heart of college shenanigans, is also swarming with missionaries. I'm talking a full-on infestation of people longing for people to know the King. Time and time again I've watched people grow increasingly antsy at staying still. They have an itch in them that lingers until they go. God be praised. If you are ever in a setting of people who genuinely love the Lord, you will instantly know them. They are the yelpers of the group- the ones who have an unfiltered squeal of excitement when someone gives word that a friend who had been searching for something more has encountered God, fallen in love with him, and chosen to devote their life to him. Truly, though. Keep your ears pealed the next time you are in a setting where someone shares that a loved one has encountered Jesus- the ones who let out a burst of excitement at that very moment- they are the ones who long for the 1. They would leave the 99.
So what is my part in the story? I am a sender. I, of course, am also called to go, and I welcome and urge any of you to argue with me any time that I consider myself not called to go! But at heart, I am a sender. My passion is to find those with that itch to go, and to help them and serve them in any way the Lord sees fit. To encourage their hearts, to steady them in the rock that has become the corner stone, and to be by their side when they are on the field. To convince them that they are not forgotten, that their cause is worthy, and that the work is the Lord's. To be a sounding ground in their troubles, and a delighter in their triumphs. To God be the glory.
And that is why I want someone else to write the book. Leaving the 99.
Because I don't think, for these, that it is the going that is hard. It is the leaving. Show them the one, and they are running! But it is the 99 that cause their hearts anguish. It is leaving those that have surrounded them and grown them. Leaving the ones who understand, whose hearts have beat in time with theirs. Leaving their families. Leaving their friends.
Even Jesus went through this. He told his disciples that he must leave and go to Jerusalem and suffer many things and be killed. Peter (arguably his best friend) took him aside, with the loving nature of a friend, and said "Never Lord! This shall never happen to you!" Jesus hears the heart cry of his beloved friend, and it moves him so much that he has to proclaim "Get behind me Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God but merely human concerns" (Matthew 16).
As a sender- how do I help in this manner? How do I help those called to go be willing to leave the 99? There is such cause for pain therein. Thus, I am so aware that this work is probably the most up to the Lord of any. To keep their eyes fixed on the road ahead of them.
"Jesus replied, 'No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.'" -Luke 9:62.
I don't think He is being harsh when He says this. I think He is being realistic. Because He knows from experience. He left his Father and the kingdom of heaven to be bound eternally to flesh and blood- forsaking all else for the ones who would respond to his love and receive him. To look back is death. To look ahead is to find life.
And so, you with hearts for the nations- you with hearts for the one. Tell me what is your motivation to leave the 99? Tell me about the 1. Tell me your passion! Lord it feels like you say in Revelation: "Let the reader understand." Because there is something deeper here that brings life like we have never known it.
God bless to all those who have gone, are going, and will go some day. Passion, Patience, and Peace be with you all in the Name of our Lord.
