During the week of April 22-28, 2002 a group of fifteen teenagers and five adults went to New York City for a mission trip from our church. We were quite the crew, a mixture of different backgrounds, races, even faiths. Frankly, I was unsure as to how things would turn out. I feared that many were going for the excitement that New York has to offer rather than for the joy of serving God. Our accommodations weren't too bad, but located in a rundown, scary part of town. To be honest, I was quite nervous, not only for my own safety but for how the kids would react.
We had one sixteen-year old with no real church background, whom we'll call Preston. He started attending our church school second semester and seemed to be doing well, but was unsure of the "God stuff". I was anxious to see how he would handle sharing a Christ that he may know very little about. On Thursday, we were doing what was called "Radical Street Ministry," where kids were encouraged to start conversations with perfect strangers in New York. Personally, I thought it was crazy. After all, who's going to talk to you in New York? However, most of the kids did very well, and before the week ended, about 200 copies of Desire of Ages had been passed out.
Our young sixteen-year old was possibly the most enthusiastic of them all. He saw a homeless man that day and offered to give him a few dollars for food. The man refused and asked instead for something to eat.
Preston said to him, "I'll buy you dinner if you come and have a conversation with me."
For the next fifteen minutes, Preston and that man had a great conversation. Later, as Preston reflected on his experience and told me how much fun he had serving the Lord, I had the awesome privilege of seeing him give his heart to Christ for the first time in his life.
Apprehension is natural. Anytime we pushed out of our world of comfort into the world of ministry, nervousness will happen. Yet it is when we are out of our element that we are forced to encounter a real God. As the children of Israel moved into the promised land (and out of their wilderness "comfort zone"), Moses said to Joshua, his successor, "Be strong and of good courage, for you must go with this people to the land which the Lord has sworn to their father to give them, and you shall cause them to inherit it. And the Lord, He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed."
It took a young, unchurched sixteen-year old for me to encounter the God of courage that week. I was truly humbled to witness this young man's willingness to serve a God he had only begun to know. It leads me now to step back and evaluate where I need more courage in my life. It makes me wonder how much I really believe that God would give such courage to me. The prayer for myself and for those who read these lines is that we would together encounter that God who is never far away--the God of Courage.
ENCOUNTER: What would it look like for you to move out of your "comfort zone?" What kind of courage would be required? How would you obtain it?
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