How Big is Your World?

...and you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.

Acts 1:8

I was visiting with old some friends recently and we were reminiscing about our college days. A certain minister came up and we remembered one of his pet sermonettes, which was meant to appeal to our youthful idealism and mobility. Looking at it now, it appears highly manipulative.

He used to say, “How many of you just want to get married, get some job, have kids, settle down in some little town like your parents and have no impact on the world for the Kingdom of God!?”

“No!” he would bellow, “God has much more for you! You are the head and not the tail! You will be overcomers all over this world!”

It was funny, thinking back on how different people reacted. Some longed for the small time life and an existence away from the frenetic college world. Others bought into the manipulation, and have told me that they have lived for years in, what would be considered by this man, a mundane existence always wondering if they had fulfilled their ‘destiny’.

Another more subtle lie was planted in the minds of young folks in my demographic, those from two parent families, Mom cooking every night, Pop working hard to provide for his family, setting the example for the kids...somehow this was second class in this man’s eyes. More than a subtle lie, it was a damnable lie.

Many years have passed since those idealistic days, and I have come to my own conclusions about my world around me. Bottom line, it is pretty small. And I like it that way. Hear me out.

A friend and I were talking recently and I asked him if he knew how much ‘geo- graphy’ Jesus covered while He was on earth. My friend told me that, taking away the trips to Egypt , it has been said that Jesus covered about a much territory as a New England state.

It is astonishing, given what we take for granted with technology and the information highway, that our Savior’s message spread from a relatively small mound of earth that became the spiritual epicenter of the Good News of the Gospel of Christ to the world!

It is a pattern that I really think we should imitate, one that is really liberating, because in actuality, many of us do leave college, find jobs, marry, have children and live in some locale.

Our ‘worlds’ may not be much larger than the one Jesus trod upon. But His influence, our influence...it is not limited in terms of geography. When Jesus said that His kingdom was not of this world, I don’t think many understood then or now.

I wonder...when Jesus told the apostles to be a witness for Him in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and even the remotest part of the earth...could it mean that our influence may need to start in our own “Jerusalem”? Mine would simply be my home. My family. My friends. My job. Have we missed opportunities to share the love and grace of Christ because some manipulative preacher has planted a false idea about what is good, what is right, what is pure?

Give me my world any day. I embrace the ‘mundane existence’; I embrace it for its diminutive simplicity, as it also encompasses something of unbounded infinity, the Kingdom of God.

Finally, for anyone still reading my blog, you have noticed that my entries have become fewer and further between. With summer approaching, I may have more time to write, then again, there were a bunch of stories that I wanted to tell, and I told them. So check in from time to time. Only time will tell if I keep tapping the keyboard or move on to building ships in a bottle. Thanks so much for reading!

Mark
Prov. 17:22
Keep that heart merry!