While writing an email to share prayer items with some LATM friends today, I thought of the recent death of the king of Thailand. It seems important to me, although I have never visited Thailand. A huge storm has hit the Philippines – another one! – and I worry about it. New rules in Russia about who-can-preach-where have left me feeling somewhat apprehensive.
A few years ago, I would have skipped those news stories. Why would sad or dangerous events halfway around the globe matter to me? Now I wonder what has changed. Maybe this: Working with LATM, I have met ministry partners from many places, and their enthusiasm for telling their people about hope in Christ, and for training their churches to grow in His service, is seeping into my thinking.
I am glad to see my world grow, for the idea of “my people” to include total strangers whose importance escaped my attention before. When Jesus underlined the old law to love our neighbors as ourselves, he must have been thinking of a neighborhood as big as the world. Paul’s one-another admonitions certainly direct us to feel more than pity or even sympathy, but to have empathy, as the whole body responds to injuries to any part or extremity (Ro 12.15, 1 Co 12.26).
Lord, wear down my resistance to embrace your entire world. Lead me to see the Christ-less and the Christian as you see them, to think and feel about them, and to respond to them, as You do.
Doug Reed | Literature And Teaching Ministries | www.latm.info