“…and they just picked up and moved to the next ridge
and started digging…”

I was serving at a church in Connecticut for my field placement while in seminary. They hosted a man by the name of John Cutts who grew up the son of the first missionary to translate the Bible into one of the Moni, one of the 800 spoken languages in Oceania. His father had a degenerative disease that in the end left him with only one usable finger to complete the transcript… which he did.

The peoples gave him a name that translated to “weak thing”. Have you ever heard of a name so perfect for a disciple of Jesus?

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.
For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:9-10

John went on to share the story of completing a “test landing” on one of the many ridges in the land in an attempt to establish a medical outpost. The tribe had spent years digging out and flattening the area with their primitive stone and wood tools. When the pilot landed they all cheered wildly and then he gave them the news that the strip was too short for a landing with a plane full of supplies and that it would have to be restarted just a few yards away….

They picked up their tools, moved to the new spot and began digging.

Dumfounded, the pilot could not keep silent and asked them why they did not utter one word of complaint…

… if we do not build the strip the plane cannot land.
If the plan cannot land, we cannot take the medicines up the river to the next tribe in our canoes.
If we do not get they medicine to them, they will die without ever hearing about Jesus”….

… in disbelief the people replied that it would take years to make the new strip.

…if I die before it is completed, my children will continue digging… and he went back to work.

This dedication is not only for tribes in the jungle but for every follower of Jesus…. the West just is not willing to pay the cost…. and like the rich young man whom Jesus called out to Give up everything too… he went away empty… without salvation.

Your whole life must be given to Love.
If not, that person’s life before God adds up to zero.”

Gordon Fee

To this end, I have picked up my tools and walked away from the High Place of social media. I will only be writing here, in hopes that together, you and I aided by the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, will be transformed by His power into the image of our beloved Lord who picked up a cross so that He might dig up our graves by his death