A little perspective is helpful from time to time.
I've been reading a book called "To the Golden Shore: The Life of Adoniram Judson". Adoniram Judson was the first North American to enter the Christian mission field. He went to Burma.
He encountered illness, death of loved ones, and terrible storms and that was just the many month trip over there.
While there, he was imprisoned, tortured, separated from his wife for a couple of years, lived to see two of his children die, and then experienced the death of his wife. And I'm only two-thirds finished with the book.
Why? Why did he leave his comfortable home in New England?
He was a learned man and had been offered a nice pastorate position in an affluent area at the time.
Why leave all of this and go to a people that he had never met and a land that he had never been to, knowing that danger was imminent and that he would never see his family or friends again?
The answer: The Gospel.
He thought that sharing the story of redemption through Jesus Christ was more important than his comfort.
I think as Americans, most of us struggle with the difference between "wants and needs". I know I do.
Judson, himself, struggled with the internal wars of striving for success and self-denial.
I'm not saying that we should not allow ourselves any "wants", but that we simply acknowledge the blessed life that we already enjoy.
Gratitude. Contentment.
And also a realization that there are those that have chosen to leave the familiar for the unfamiliar, the safe for the dangerous, for a higher purpose.
Thank you Jay and Shana Howard.
Thank you Ludie and Barbara Creech.
May the Lord honor your lives and may the people of Indonesia and Ireland be blessed.
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