I saw a car wreck the other day. I pulled over to see if I could help. The car had rolled down a steep bank into a ditch and hit a tree. Three teenage girls were screaming and walking around the car. I went down to see if there was anything I could do. An emergency team arrived and I backed off. As I got to the top of the bank I noticed a car full of teenage boys so I asked them if they knew the girls. They said they were friends. I wandered why they weren’t getting out of the car to help their friends. They didn’t seem to care. I told them to go and help; they told me that the girls would be okay without them. I tried to tell them that the girls could do with some friends to stand next to them, offer them a sweatshirt or coat, assure them, put an arm around them, but they weren’t interested.
As I left I was annoyed by these boys’ behavior. Why didn’t they want to help? They stayed in their nice warm car, out of the rain, away from the screaming. And then I thought: isn’t that just like us? We can often stay in our nice warm bubble looking down on lost people all over the world whose souls are screaming, who are confused, lost and in a hopeless ditch. They are in need of a savior, one who will rescue them, assure them, clothe them in righteousness, and raise them out of their ditch. And yet we remain in our cars.
2000 years ago God got out of the car, walked into the ditch and came as the savior of the world. He was the ultimate missionary risking it all for the sake of lost people stuck in the ditch.
The world is filled with chaos, with people who are like those teenage girls: they are lost, confused, and crying out for help. They are caught up in their lusts, confused by multiple messages all telling them how to have the best life and every promise leading to a dead end.
I only know one answer to the chaos: the gospel, the remedy for our sin, the clothing for our souls, the restoration of our lives. The world looks to missiles and money to solve the chaos, but God is looking for missionaries, those who will get out of the car. May he raise up many who will go and tell people about Jesus.
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| Five Guys Who Got Out of the Car. |
