Light From the Dark Continent

Light From the Dark Continent – July 20, 2011

I have been thinking about you all much this morning and recounting the blessing that it is to be in partnership with your L.I.F.E. I truly cannot think of anything better that Janice and I could, or would rather be doing with our lives other than being a part of bringing such incredible hope to so many people there, and here in Africa. We pastored a church for years, and never had the individual impact on so many that has been the result of TEAM. I have just come back from my morning run and all along the way my thoughts moved homeward. Week three is always the hardest for me on these trips. I don\’t think I will ever get used to being away from my precious bride, best friend, partner, encourager and mentor, and my family and friends. The temptation comes to question whether it\’s worth it. It is so with my run this morning. Sometimes it starts to feel good and easy, but that\’s when I know I am not improving. It would be so easy at those times to just ease up and keep that pace every time I go out…but guess what? That will never take me to my goal of a 7 minute mile! It will always just be \”doing good\”…the victory cry of the mediocre. No! It\’s at those moments I have to remember where I\’ve come, where I am, and where I want to be. I have to keep stroking! I have to keep the dream alive!

It was that way this morning up a muddy, slippery, red dirt, hilly African street! My prize, my dream, was all I had to push me on.  No one watching, no one keeping time, no one cheering! Stretching every muscle, expanding every Alveolar sac in my chest until they feel like they are aflame…firing up every synapses in my cranium to mobilize those Elephant neurons… For the Prize that is set before me!

The path has already been laid out for me. I don\’t have to figure that part out! All I have to do is set my mind to do it and never quit! That\’s like what we all have in our hands in TEAM. This is our challenge! We have ahead of us a race, that if we endure to the end will reward us with a prize that so few people will ever have the privilege of experiencing. So few will even get the invitation to enter yet alone qualify for what lies at the end. Here in Liberia I teach team principles as they relate to LIFE in Christ and the resulting freedom to hundreds of people, who at very best can change the way they think in terms if relationships and be set free to know the joy of forgiven sins and a new life in Christ. That is their prize! Nothing more! There is no money. There are no jobs, there is no education, there is no health care, funerals are more common than weddings, it rains almost 24 hours a day 6 months out of a year!  We don\’t know what tough is till we get around these people for a while, but their smiles can literally light up a black African night!  So what\’s this got to do with us? It has everything to do with the freedom for which, those who have gone before us and made the ultimate sacrifice have shed blood, sweat and tears. We are in a race for true freedom. The course has been set for us. It\’s been mapped out and we are surrounded by a huge crowd of witnesses that can prove to us that it can be done because they\’ve already done it! But the temptation is always there to give up at the first major struggle. It is at these times that we have to pull hard at the memory if why we got started! And if that reason was not big enough to keep us, maybe we need to find one that is big enough. I think sometimes the size of the dream, and the reason to press on to freedom will determine how small or big a struggle will cause us to quit! Or if not quit, just \”take a little time out\”… the death dirge of a loser… I love you all and sooo much want to see what you become and what you achieve at the finish line. So I challenge you to think again. Meditate on it. Picture it. Live it in your mind. And never let the voices and the doubts of the mediocre become louder and larger than the cheerleader of your soul and the belief in yourself that you can and will do anything you want!  I leave You with this thought that has really been speaking to me lately, and I will see you real soon! Hebrews 12:1 (MSG) Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we\’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we\’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he\’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls! Philippians 3:12,15 (MSG) I\’m not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don\’t get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I\’ve got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. I\’m off and running, and I\’m not turning back. [15] So let\’s keep focused on that goal, those of us who want everything God has for us. If any of you have something else in mind, something less than total commitment, God will clear your blurred vision—you\’ll see it yet! Now that we\’re on the right track, let\’s stay on it.

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