For many people, the invention of glasses and contacts are both a blessing and the curse. They are blessing, in that they can be used to easily correct a wide variety of vision problems. They are a curse because they can become a nuisance to deal with every day of your life. One of the most common problems easily corrected by glasses or contacts is myopia, or near-sightedness. This is a condition that manifests itself by allowing a person to see things up close, but does not allow the eye to focus properly on distant objects. Progressive myopia is a severe form of this eye disease where a person can become progressively more and more near-sighted until they are declared legally blind.
Many Christians, including myself from time to time, suffer from spiritual myopia. We can become so fixated on the problems and needs of our own little world, that the larger world, and God’s plan for it, lose focus and become blurry. Right now many churches, impacted by the world economic crisis, are turning more and more inward. In hard times, the natural human response is to look to our own and try to conserve we have. It is not a time to be looking outward – a time to be expanding. But because of whom we serve, this is not an option for Christian believers. Who is this person we serve? He is none other than the Creator and Master of all that is. The Psalter tells us in Ps 89:11, ” The heavens are Yours Lord, the earth is also Yours. The world and all it contains, You have founded them.” There is nothing that is that is not His and under His control – people, cities, animals, the oceans, the land, the stars, the Church, and each of us – ALL that is is His. He is not surprised or hampered by hard economic times or disasters. His work continues regardless – its just that we as His people some times get so focused on our own issues that we lose sight of our big God.
But this is not true everywhere. On July 19, 2009, our family visited Mio Church of God in Mio, MI. This community of believers is located in northern Michigan in one of the most economically challenged areas. They are suffering with the larger community with a local unemployment rate of 24%. In a situation like this, the logical thing to do would be to cut back and slow down, but this not what they are doing in Mio. Instead they are continuing to build their vision for what they can do both in their local community and in the broader world. In terms of international outreach, they support a number of ministries, including ours, around the world. Locally, they are working with the homeless and other area churches to provide relief supplies to families hardest hit by the economic crisis. Additionally, they are expanding the kingdom through mentoring another nearby Church of God that has been experiencing difficulties and planting a new church in a community 20 miles to the south. In the midst of crisis they see the obstacles, but they also see a God that is bigger than any problem they may face.
Faith communities like our brothers and sister in Mio are the life blood of the kingdom. We all need to follow their example in remembering whom we serve. Our God is the one who has created the north and the south, the east and the west, the heavens above to the ocean depths. We serve and go forth in the name of Jesus to whom “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given.” Let us go forth in faith and the power of the God who is Master and Creator of all. We are all Your’s God.
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