I’ve been spending a lot of time in my home office. Travels, visits to campuses, meeting new people have all been canceled. I sit at my computer consuming my time with zoom calls, coaching, virtual conferences, and administration. To the left of my desk, hanging on the wall is a 20 x 26 inch picture. If you look at it, you will see a “dark and stormy ocean. Over it the black clouds hang heavy, through them every now and then vivid lightening flashing and thunder rolling, the wind moans and waves rise and foam; tower and break. Myriads of poor human beings plunging and floating, shouting and shrieking, cursing and screaming- they rise and shriek again and then some sink to rise no more. A mighty rock that rises with its summit towering high above the black clouds has a vast platform attached to it. On it, a number of poor struggling, drowning people climbing out of the angry ocean. A few who are already safe on the platform are helping the helpless people still in the angry waters. However, a number of those who had been rescued are a mixed company. Very few seem to make it their business to get the people out of the sea. All of them had been rescued at one point or another from the ocean, yet nearly everyone seems to have forgotten about it. The memory of its darkness and danger no longer seem to trouble them. They don’t seem to care about the perishing ones who were struggling and drowning right before their very eyes. Some on the platform are engaged in different pursuits and pastimes. Some in trading and business, some in storing their savings in boxes, some painting or playing music.”
This is the picture that hangs in my office and reminds me of how I want to live my life. It is a vision of lost souls that God gave William Booth in the late 1800’s. Please read his powerful and more detailed vision here. The artist Mauricio Palacio titled his interpretation of the vision as “Who Cares?”. William Booth goes on to say, “My friends in Christ, you are rescued from the waters. You are on the rock. He is in the dark sea calling to you to come to Him and help Him. Will you go? Look for yourselves. The surging sea of life crowded with perishing multitudes rolls up to the very spot on which you stand. Leaving the vision, I now come to speak of the fact- the fact that is as real as the Bible, as real as the Christ who hung upon the cross, as real as the judgment day will be, and as real as the heaven and heal that will follow it.
Look! Don’t be deceived by appearances- men and things are not what they seem. All who are no on the rock are in the sea! Look at them from the standpoint of the great white throne, and what a sight you have! Jesus Christ, the Son of God is, through His Spirit, in the midst of this dying multitude, struggling to save them. And he is calling on you to jump into the sea- to go right away to His side and help Him in the holy strife. Will you jump? That is, will you go His feet and place yourself absolutely at His disposal?”
To be honest, the people who are on the platform ignoring the drowning people calling out appals me. They seem so ignorant as they go about eating, painting and doing business. Don’t they see? Don’t they care? Yet…if I am honest with myself. Those appalling people…are me! So often I forget about the dark angry ocean of drowning souls around me and I focus just on myself and my comforts. May I look at this picture and remind myself of the truth of eternity. That there are so many lost souls desperate in need of rescuing from the domain of darkness and into Christ redemption and victory.
A third of the world is still denied the access of the gospel. That is 1 in 3 people. A third of us on earth are “unreached” with no Bible, no church, no believers. Each one of us has a role we can play in being active in the rescue. For some it is Bible translation, some church planting, some discipleship, some evangelism, some technology/media, some in financially sending and praying, some in sharing with those closest to you.
Since I was a young teen girl, the passage in Mark 8:35-37 has been one of my life verses- “For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?”
For me, right now living missionally for the Lord is mobilizing and raising awareness of the unreached in our world. “How then, can they call on the One they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the One whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” Romans 10:14-15. Finding men and women who are willing to “place themselves absolutely at God’s disposal”. God can use you. He made you, designed you, rescued you. You can join Him in what He is doing and instead of being consumed about your comfort you remember that you too were rescued and can be a part of “rescuing the perishing, care for the dying- Jesus is merciful, Jesus saves.”
This blog post was written by Leah Vanderlaan, mobilizer with Avant Ministries.