For "Now" or "Forever?"

And we have seen and we testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. - 1 John 4:14

What were we thinking when we agreed to become missionaries to Africa in 2008 (at the age of 50)?! My wife and I wrestled with this question many times in the year leading up to our departure. I mean, did we hear God right? Maybe He meant something else, or someone else!

Of course, we ultimately arrived at the conclusion that God had not stuttered and (after many years of challenging others to go where God sends) it was time for us to "put up or shut up.".

Through the years, as we have considered the cost of following Christ, we have asked ourselves questions like these:

"Is Jesus really the Savior of the world?"

"Should every person have an opportunity to hear the Good News?"

"Is it every Christ-follower's responsibility to bear this message?"

"Are we living for "now" or "forever?"

Understanding that the answer to the first three questions was an emphatic, "Yes," and the last question was an assured, "forever," certainly meant we were compelled to be "going," no matter the cost. We just had to make the decision.

How about you?

If men as individuals surrender to the call of their elementary instincts, avoiding pain and seeking satisfaction only for their own selves, the result for them all taken together must be a state of insecurity, of fear, and of promiscuous misery. - Albert Einstein