I don’t know about you, but I like to be comfortable. I want to sit in a chair that reclines so I can watch T.V. and relax in my nice, air-conditioned living room. I don’t want my bed to be too hard to lay on or so soft it makes my back ache when I sleep on it. I want to know that I have plenty of money in the bank so that my family will never want for anything that I think is a necessity. I want a fully stocked cupboard and refrigerator brimming with all my favorite foods and beverages. I want the remote control always to be in reach, so I won’t have to exert myself to change the channel. I want my retirement account to grow at an exponential rate so that my retirement years can also be lived out in comfort.
I don’t think I’m all that abnormal, although I know some would disagree with that statement. I’ve come by my desire for comfort honestly. I’ve heard it in conversations with adults when I was a boy. My elders would tell me that I should be a doctor or a lawyer so I could have plenty of money. After all, that’s the American dream: get all you can, can all you get, then sit on the can. More money means more comfort.
I have observed it in every church I’ve ever been a part of, whether on staff, or simply as a member. When the preacher preaches a particularly hard-hitting sermon, we accuse him of stepping on our toes, of making us uncomfortable. However, the strong desire I have for comfort is constantly at war with the desire to be obedient to God, to go where He leads, to obey His commands, to make disciples of all nations.
I want you to know that this trip to Serbia has been anything but comfortable. Don’t get me wrong. The people with whom we’ve worked have been more than hospitable. They have been amazing, and my heart aches at the thought of leaving them on Friday. Yet, I have been challenged and stretched more by the Holy Spirit during this trip than at any other time in my life since becoming a Christian at age 9.
I don’t find it comfortable to go to a land where they speak a language that is completely foreign to me. I don’t find it comfortable that most people in this place don’t believe in air conditioning, even in the middle of summer. I don’t find it comfortable that I am expected to give an impromptu devotion or sermon with little more than 15 minutes’ notice. Being an introvert, I don’t find it comfortable having to have conversations through a translator with people whom I have just met. To be honest, I struggle to have good conversations with people I’ve known for years.
I also don’t like it when I don’t know what the plan is, or when what I thought was supposed to be the plan gets messed up and doesn’t happen the way I think it is supposed to happen. Yet, that is exactly what this trip has been, one change after another. Yet, I have seen God do things on this trip that I never thought I would see in my lifetime.
One of the greatest highlights of the first week of our visit was getting to spend time with the youth at Marijan’s church in Prokuplje. I fell in love with them last year, and I couldn’t wait to spend time with them this year. I see in them a hunger and thirst for righteousness and a desire to serve Jesus with every minute of their lives. Their passion for life, for laughter, for worship draws me to them like a moth to a flame.
Due to the timing of this trip, most of them were working 12 hour days harvesting cherries. Yet, even after getting up at 4:30 in the morning and working 12 hours, they still managed to make it to the church by 8:00 each evening for us to teach them about leadership and discipleship, and then they stayed after the meeting was over to work on their choir and drama specials. During our meetings, we discussed what it meant to be a leader and a disciple. We shared with them that disciples are disciple makers. We talked with them about the importance of spending time reading and studying the word of God each day. We talked with them about proper relationships and the importance of purity in their dating lives.
On Saturday, we were supposed to have an evangelistic meeting in Prokuplje. All week long, I prayed for God to give me a message to share, because, as the visiting preacher, it was my responsibility to share the Gospel at the meeting. However, God was strangely silent. As the week progressed, I prayed more earnestly, “God, please give me the words to share with the people who will be coming on Saturday.” Still, God didn’t answer. Did I mention to you that I don’t like being uncomfortable? The thought of getting up in front of a crowd who came to see the American preacher without anything to say was terribly unsettling. Yet, no matter how hard I prayed for a message, no message came.
On Saturday morning, on the way to Marijan and Slavica’s flat, I told Marabeth, Bethany, and Caitlin that they had better pray hard that God gave me a message that day for the meeting that evening, but when we arrived, Marijan told us that the place where we were supposed to have the meeting had no electricity, so we were going to have to cancel the meeting and do something else. Did I mention to you that I hate it when the plan gets changed?
So, instead of having an evangelistic meeting, we set up one final meeting with the students of the church, and as Rodja and Marijan began discussing what they wanted to cover in this final meeting, God brought to mind the exact scripture I was to use and an idea of what I was to share.
I spoke to the students from Matthew 9, where Jesus talked to His disciples about how they should pray to the Lord of the harvest to send workers out into His harvest. I urged them to see the needs around them, to be moved by the condition of the lost, to remember that the harvest belongs to the Lord, and our power to reap the harvest comes from the Holy Spirit. I encouraged them to devote themselves to praying for God to send workers into His harvest in the power of the Holy Spirit. So, that is how we closed our meeting, praying to the Lord of the harvest to send workers into His harvest.
After the meeting was over, we went to Marijan and Slavica’s flat for dinner, and then, just an hour after we had prayed, the workers rang the doorbell! Two young men who used to live in Prokuplje and had attended Marijan’s church before moving to other cities were here for the cherry harvest and heard that we were here. They came to visit with us to express their desire for help to plant churches in their respective villages. I couldn’t believe it. There they were, sitting in the living room with us. These men were the answer to the prayer we had just prayed. Before they left, we began making plans to help them plant churches in their homes. I was absolutely blown away!
I don’t know about you, but I like to be comfortable. Yet, I am learning that being in the middle of God’s will is rarely comfortable, because it is not about me. But the more I think about it, and the more I experience God’s presence in the uncomfortable places, the more I realize that being uncomfortable isn’t really as bad as I thought it was.
