But do you know what I think we failed to do? We failed to expose her to the world. Not the secular world v. the Christian world. The world. The globe. And the people and cultures that fill it.
I should have taken her places that showed her how BIG God is. I should have spent time with people who could have told her about life in other places. I should have taken her into homes where joy was more evident than the poverty. I should have taught her that the world is not flat and that unless you GO, you will never see what is on the other side.
We traveled a lot. But the people she met mostly looked like me. Or her dad. And even as a bi-racial child she was not exposed to the world.
As I work with young people I see this amazing trap we set for them. We say that we want to give them the world. But really, most of us will only give them the safest, protected, least risky world we can. We tell them to work for the best scholarships, go to the highest ranked school on your list, marry the right man, and raise beautiful children to do this all over again.
But what if?
What if my daughter was supposed to be the next Adonirum Judson or Amy Carmichael, or Jim Elliott? What if she was the one God had chosen to carry the gospel message to a tribe of people who had never heard? What if she was exposed to crazy diseases and soldiers guarding borders? What if she had to navigate barbed wire fences to do her job?
Would I have been ready for her to come to me and say “Mom, my heart is aching for the people of Burma, or Sudan, or North Korea, or …?” I didn’t give her the chance to do that because I was too busy keeping her safe and protected as any “good” mother would; as my mother did.
Actually, there was this one time. She didn’t use words, but if I had been “listening” I might have heard it. Our church was going to take a mission trip to Mexico and we began praying that God would show us who was supposed to make the journey. My nine year old daughter heard the call. She begged to go. We assumed it was because there were others her age who were going with their parents. But we decided she should go, and that one of us should go with her. I remember her sending out letters asking family and friends to support her journey. Within two weeks, she had raised enough money to pay for her and one other person. She also purchased several really nice puppets and together we built a portable puppet stage. I even wrote a few plays and had them translated into Spanish so that our kids could share the gospel in the streets of Juarez.
I remember watching her teach and play with the children in the streets. While the other kids on our team were complaining about the heat and the lack of English television and cold water, she was tying children’s shoes and carrying them around on her back and making sure they all had food and candy. God was telling me something more that week, but my motherhood made me miss it. She had a missionary heart, but I did not hear her voice because I was too afraid to let go. I had learned from my own parents when I was hearing God call me in college. Their fear made my dreams scary and unattainable. And mine had done the same to my little girl.
We teach our children to be self-centered and safe. We teach them that life should be easy and full of conveniences. And we teach them to plan ahead and have a well-managed retirement package. But we don’t teach them that they may regret the time they wasted getting there. And we rarely teach them the rewards of sacrificing it all to go and serve in a place that needs a Savior.
What if life in the streets of Indonesia or the fields of Thailand or the dusty villages of the Congo were more fulfilling than the halls of Harvard or UGA? What if your child isn’t meant to go off to college and follow the pattern set in motion for students graduating from high school? I am not saying that they cannot do both. But I am going to venture out and ask you to nurture this “other” place in your child.
A couple of weeks ago I heard a powerful prayer. “God, capture the attention of the sixteen year olds of this world before they are tainted by success or mediocrity. Help them to get a glimpse of Your work in the world and draw them toward it.”
I remember my sixteen year old heart and I wish I had been given the courage to follow my dreams. My life would have been different. And now, here I sit. I am fifty-five years old and God is rekindling that heart within me – the one that wants to go. The one that can no longer bear to see the oppression in this world. The one that breaks each time I hear a cry from the other side of the ocean. And the one that weeps every time I think of the need in this world. I talk about being a world-changer. And I am. But I came to game in the 7th inning. I wish that I had been first at bat.
Teach your kids that while education and a steady income may be important…so is laying it all on the line in order that the world can KNOW that Jesus Christ is Lord.