The last words of person is the most important. Facing death, one doesn’t beat around the bush but rather cut to the chase. So did Jesus. The last thing he said before he went back to heaven was,
15 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
Mark 16 :15
Jesus said to go into all the world. Nothing less, nothing more. The disciples followed Jesus, word by word and went to many places. Thomas came as far as India in the first century.
But what about us?.
What we can do, at least
Of course, it is ideal, if we can travel to the ends of the world to preach the good news about Jesus, but many of us know that in the contemporary world order it is difficult to travel around , owing to visa issues, traveling constraints, xenophobia, racism and many more.
Someone wise once told me that we impact people even in ways we are unaware of. Our actions, words, non-verbals cause ripples. Some might be negatively impacted, and some positively. A young guy in my young adults group once answered that he would like to host people and help people achieve their dreams, because someone helped him with his. Also another young guy in the same group said that he hates a certain nationality because he had a couple of bad experiences from people of that nation. (Though we can argue that one should not be quick to judge and condemn, that is a topic for another day). No matter how inhibited we want our lives to be, as long as interactions are a part of our social being, we impact people.
Not just an app
There are apps that help to visualize the countries we have visited on a map. The Been app is one such. For many of us who haven’t visited many countries, it can be boring using this app. We might either end up uninstalling the app or change our phones before we mark another country as “visited”.
But think of using the app in a different way. Think of all the people who you’ve got in touch with,who you’ve talked to, been friends with. People like me who live in Europe get to meet a lot of people from other nations, even if the interactions are short lived. Mark the countries they are a part of, in the app. You probably got half an hour with that person, a day with that foreigner, mark them all.
Your kindness is changing the world
Have a look at that map. We have impacted these people from all these countries. We’ve got in touch with them, and they have taken a part of us. We might spend probably years, months, days or even an hour with them. But we have impacted them. Amazing, right?God gave us opportunities to show his love and testify to the nations, by being Jesus to these people who we meet everyday. You might be an expat or probably you might have a relative who is an expat. Your kindness and love through God will help them to be nice to the people in the countries they visit. You are making an effect without even noticing it. Its wisdom when we realize that we just have a short window with almost every person we meet to make an impact in their lives and eventually their country. Do you want to lead Syria to peace and love of Christ, be Jesus to a Syrian when you meet one.
Isn’t that amazing. You are virtually traveling to the end of the world even without you knowing about it. You might get in touch with a plethora of people. Be nice to them. Show them the love of Christ. Be Jesus to them. That will lead them to the love and communion of Jesus. That is how God can impact the nations they are from.
Probably one day, they’ll say ” Lets not attack that Pastor, leave him alone. My son told me that it was a Christian family who gave him shelter when he was lonely and cold one night”.
Note : The Been app is one among many apps with the same purpose. This is not an ad or a promotion of any app. I mentioned Been as I use it. There are apps such as Countries visited as well.
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