I hate goodbyes. Anybody else? I don't mean the, "see you soon" goodbyes. I mean the, "I live across the world," goodbyes. The, "I don't know when I'll see you again," goodbyes. The, "this could be the last goodbye," goodbyes.
Those goodbyes.
"Then why not just stay?"
It's a question that's been posed to us in some form or another. I mean, why would we choose to go through all the tear-filled farewells time and time again? Why would we choose to take our kids to a place so far away from family? Why would we choose to leave the land of fast food and even faster internet? Is it really worth it?
After a few months in the States we began to long for the day when we would go back to Zambia. I likened our time there to an extended vacation. They're wonderful, but after a while you're just ready to go back home and get back to work, right? And the reason we feel that way is because we truly love what we do. Truly. We're not just putting on a brave face and saying what we think people want to hear. God called us to go beyond our own borders, and it's a joy to be able to share the gospel message and train up others to do the same. We love it.
A passage that always comes to mind when we leave is this one:
“Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life." (Mark 10:29-30)
Matthew Henry's Commentary talks about those verses in this way:
"The greatest trial of a good man's constancy is, when his love to Christ comes to stand in competition with a love that is lawful, nay, that is his duty. It is easy to such a one to forsake a lust for Christ, for he hath that within him, that rises against it; but to forsake a father, a brother, a wife, for Christ, that is, to forsake those whom he knows he must love, is hard. And yet he must do so, rather than deny or disown Christ. Thus great is the loss supposed to be; but it is for Christ's sake, that he may be honored, and the gospel's, that it may be promoted and propagated."
That. Right there.
We love our family; our friends. We enjoy the conveniences and the experiences. We love our home country. But, following God and advancing the gospel is worth giving up those things.
Our decisions are always two sided. Leaving one place means coming to another. Our denial to self is also our obedience to God. Our goodbyes to some are our hellos to others.
It's not easy, but is it worth it? Undoubtedly. Emphatically. Always.
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