What are you living for? part 4

It’s nice to have a career. It’s far better to have a career and be on a mission for God.

Serving God in a Communist Prison

Having gone to Ukraine many times, I have had the opportunity to learn about a pastor from St. Petersburg, Russia. He shares what it was like to grow up in a Communist country.
 

His father (a pastor for over forty years) used to tell his mother, “Some night we may be sleeping when suddenly there will come a knock at the door. When that happens, don’t be surprised if the KGB takes me away and you never see me again.  When that happens, don’t give up the faith. After I am gone, remember the Lord will never leave you.”
 

During the Communist years, many Christians were taken to the prison camps and psychiatric hospitals and were made to suffer because of their faith. Some believers spent twenty-five years or more behind bars for the sake of the Gospel. A few of them came out and wrote books about their experiences. But most of those who suffered for God did not write any books because they did not want any publicity. They viewed their time in prison as part of their ministry for God. Their attitude was, “If God can use me more effectively in prison, then that’s where I will serve Him.”
 

Let’s put it this way: Jesus calls His followers to be totally sold out to His Kingdom. That applies to all Christians all the time not just to “full-time Christian workers” such as pastors or missionaries. Suppose you are an electrical engineer or an attorney. Here is God’s job description for you: You are a missionary, cleverly disguised as an engineer. You are a missionary, cleverly disguised as a manager and so on.
 

It’s nice to have a career. It’s far better to have a career and be on a mission for God. It is certainly not wrong to have a career and do well by the world’s standards. Nor is it sinful to move across the country. But motivation is everything. Two people may follow the same career path, and both may end up at the top. Yet one may be living solely for their career, while the other sees their life as a divinely ordained mission from God. One has lost their life; the other has saved it, just as Jesus said.
 

Ask yourself: Did Jesus have a career? No; He had a mission from God to be the Savior of the world. Nothing He did makes sense from a career point of view. Being crucified is not a good career move. Yet, by His death, He reconciled the world to God. Was He a success or a failure? The answer is obvious.
 

“So Much Wasted Time!” A few years ago, David Cassidy died at the age of 67.  He is best remembered for his role in the 1970s sitcom “The Partridge Family.” According to his daughter Katie, his last words were, “So much wasted time!” I think that’s the fear of many people: that we will come to the end and look back with regret. That we will come to the end and realize we wasted our one and only life.

Don’t waste your one and only life. Sooner or later we all come to the end of our earthly journey. What will we have to show for our time on earth? No doubt we can all look back on too much wasted time.

Continued tomorrow