our limited view

what is our perception of "worthwhile"? what shapes our view of "success"? i heard from a man today that challenged me with a story relating to these questions.

he told of a missionary that spent the last forty years of his life trying to bring the good news of Christ to the country of albania. during his entire time working there, he saw only six albanians come to Christ - several of those were killed for their faith and the rest were run out of the country. this missionary then died. now if we stopped the story at this point, would we say his time spent serving in albania was worthwhile? was this missionary successful?

ah, but the story does not end there. a few short years after this missionary's death, albanians began to accept Christ. the number of albanian believers grew, and then numbered over 40,000 people. if you mention this missionary's name to a christian in albania, they will say that the church in albania was built on the shoulders of this same missionary who during his lifetime saw no tangible success for his efforts. this missionary's daughter - to this day - still serves in albania.

the man who told the story of this missionary then spoke of his own son and daughter-in-law that are working in world missions. they are currently attending language school for the next two years in order to learn the language of the country that they will be ministering to. this father has been asked of his son and daughter-in-law, "are they worth supporting?"

it's so easy to measure worth or success based on a standard of what the immediate, tangible return is. why is it that we do not give equal value to those things that are worth doing simply because they are worth doing... because they are the right things to do... because we are called to do them... because those things truly matter? how often do we invest our blood, sweat, tears, and finances in things because - regardless of outcome - they are worth doing? i think it's because we usually lack the eternal perspective... or maybe a divine perspective. the idea that God does not spend His people's lives carelessly, or has a plan that's... oh, just slightly beyond our perceptive powers... doesn't enter our minds often enough. or, if it does, it's merely a thought; never a convicting truth that causes us to act beyond our comfort.

the last story this man told: he himself for decades tried with others to bring the gospel to albania. he and his co-workers were unable to enter the country, so they used various (in his words) "stupid" methods to desperately get the message of Christ into the country. one method they used was to wrap literature in hundreds of plastic bags and send it down rivers that flowed into albania. another method they used was to (no joke!) put gospel tracts into glass bottles and send them into the ocean on a neighboring coastline, with the full knowledge that these bottles would be smashed to bits by the tide sending these bottles into the rocky albanian shoreline. yes, but years later this man had the opportunity to personally meet several albanian believers whose first encounter with the gospel of Christ was through a plastic-wrapped tract floating down the river or a tract in a bottle washed ashore completely intact.

it's written,
I'll turn conventional wisdom on its head,
I'll expose so-called experts as crackpots

so where can you find someone truly wise, truly educated, truly intelligent in this day and age? hasn't God exposed it all as pretentious nonsense? since the world in all its fancy wisdom never had a clue when it came to knowing God, God in His wisdom took delight in using what the world considered dumb-preaching, of all things!-to bring those who trust Him into the way of salvation.

1 corinthians 1:19-21
the message