Oh it was a fun-filled night of friends and fellowship, haning with some amazing people in the city of Melbourne. Fish and chips at South Melbourne beach at sunset, fireworks at night. Magical right? Most assuredly, and yet the glimpses we received earlier in the night, that culminated in our trial to get home were most shocking.
We saw a mass of people, the most people I have ever seen in one place packed together, and no that is not the problem, but the look in their eyes is the problem. The emptiness, the hurt, the sorrow. Face after face, person after person. Life after life we saw the same thing. Desperate people looking for a hope, looking for a satisfaction.
Looking for meaning.
In the bottle, the needle, the arms of another.
Getting ever more desperate.Ever more lost, ever more broken.
It made me realise that yes it is a new year, a new beginning in some ways, but the mission is the same, my mission is the same.
Save the lost.
"Go into all the world, and make disciples of all nations, teaching them to obey all that I have instructed you, baptising them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. "
I saw the revellery, the party, and the desperate loneliness. I have the answer, I would say that if you are reading this you probably do too. If you don't then I beg you to talk to me, and we can work on this together.
But if we do have the answer, how can we hold it to ourselves? Maybe that's the wrong question. maybe the question is instead why? Why do we hold it to ourselves when the world around us is looking for it with such passion?
In my experience it's because of fear. We are afraid of what they will say. Of how they will look at us.
I have also seen just how worth it it is to see a person be renewed by this power, this hope of Jesus. It makes any trial worth suffering.
I do not want to rant and rave, so I will simply end it here. Hopefully this has given us something to think about.
It's a new year. Our mission has not changed. It has only got more important. The stakes are getting raised higher and higher. Will we go all in? Or will we simply sit on it and watch our pile fade away, and the lives of all those out there looking for a Saviour.
Don't hold back.
God's peace and power be upon you all!
Daniel