Sometimes a six-year-old sees with innocent clarity what so many of us have forgotten how to see.

Tonight our daughter announced that she was bored, which, when I was growing up, was an announcement that you wanted more than anything in life to go do some chores.  I promptly displayed a mess that she was more than welcome to handle…  Quite obviously my suggestion was met with less than hearty approval; our lawyer-to-be presented a counter-offer: “I want to do something fun.”

*cough*

I’m not going to say that my next move was the right one. It’s just what I did…time will tell. I engaged with her in a philosophical discussion about good things versus ultimate things, that there is only one ultimate thing in the world in the midst of many good things.  Fun, it so happens, is not an ultimate thing.

(Is my six-year-old getting this?)

“Why not?” she asks.

At this point I realized this was one of those rare, golden opportunity moments where God opens the door on this tiny, impressionable person and says smilingly, “Form her heart…teach her.”

I went on to explain that the most important thing in this life is glorifying God by trying to get people to follow Jesus.  [In a nutshell, that is life…that is the abundant life promised to us to be experienced in this lifetime, and the only way to answer the question “How is THAT the abundant life?” is to say “Just follow, make disciples, and you’ll find out for yourself.”]

For some reason a man I barely know popped in my mind to bring to light in the conversation. His name is Naim. He lives in Adana, Turkey. He is a pastor and the owner of the one-and-only Bible bookstore in Turkey.  I met him in 2004 while stationed in Aviano, Italy. Our church supported his ministry, and he came to see us. I’ll never forget Naim.

Naim has been beaten, arrested, threatened by police, threatened by local mosques (Naim was on his way to take his father’s position as a highly prominent Muslim imam when he converted to Christianity), had his church threatened with bombing during service, and the last I heard (2009?) he had been kidnapped. At this time I am unaware of his current location or condition. Naim has suffered greatly for his Savior. He has a wife and (now) grown, married children. They have also suffered immensely. Why?

Because the one ultimate thing in this world is the glory of Christ which we display by trying to get people to follow Him at any cost.

I went on to explain about countries where Christianity is illegal, where you simply cannot own a Bible legally.

Think about that last bit for a minute. Really think about it. How many Bibles are in your home? How many do you use often? I currently have 3 Bibles on a shelf in my living room, about probably 6 or more in my office at church. How many do I need? Really need?  Imagine a law being passed, with officials actively enforcing it, saying every one of your Bibles is now contraband you will be imprisoned for possessing. Really think about that. They will take your Bibles and take you to prison. What is unfathomable to most of us in America is the daily reality for many thousands of believers.

A Christian in Syria, dispossessed by the Islamic State militant group, recently said in an interview with Voice of the Martyrs that he was happy that in the loss of his home he managed to hang on to his most prized possession: his Bible.

My daughter has recently heard of Bible balloons…they launch them from safe places into closed countries, like North Korea, in hopes that someone somewhere will receive the Word of God in their own language.

The wheels began to turn in her mind.

“Can we go there and send Bible balloons over?”

“Well,” I said, “We don’t live near there, but I’m sure there is some way we can help.”

“We can just collect a big bunch of Bibles, and send them to someone who can launch them in a balloon.”

She sees with innocent clarity what so many of us have forgotten to see.  We spend so much of our lives finding so much significance in so much nonsense. We fill our days with appointments, sports and games, concerts, shopping, eating out, watching football, watching baseball, watching more football, fishing, hunting, snowmobiling, etc…none of these are “bad” things. They are neither good nor bad. They are, as C.S. Lewis put it, like keys on a piano. There is no such thing as a “wrong note”; there is simply a time and place for each and every one. But in all of these “good things,” where is the ultimate thing, and why don’t our time and financial commitments reflect our professed priorities?

What are my hopes and dreams for my children? That they would make the ultimate thing the ultimate thing even at the ultimate cost. Safety, financial security, happiness, good relationships, good health, professional success, good education….these are fine things, but not ultimate things. A very emotional Paul Washer made the following point in a sermon at a youth evangelism conference:

I want for you the same thing I want for my son, that one day he takes a banner, the banner of Jesus Christ, and he places it on a hill where no one has ever placed a banner before, and he cries out, “Jesus Christ is Lord,” even if it costs my son his life. Oh, when he’s 18 years old, if he says to me the same thing I said when I was a young man, “I’m going into the mountains. I’m going into the jungle.” And they said, “You can’t go there. You’re insane. It’s a war. You’re gonna die.” I’m going. When that little boy puts on that backpack, I’m going to pray over him and say, “Go! God be with you, and if you die, my son, I’ll see you over there and I’ll honor your death.”

Make the ultimate thing the ultimate thing, even at the ultimate cost.

The author of Hebrews puts it this way:

“…the bodies of those animals whose blood the high priest brings into the sanctuary as an offering for sin are burned outside the camp. Therefore, to sanctify the people by his own blood, Jesus also suffered outside the camp. We must go out to him, then, outside the camp, bearing the abuse he experienced. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.” (Hebrews 13:10-14, NET)

If we really think about these words…they are telling us that because Christ became a rejected outcast to save us, that being His follower means identifying ourselves with the method of our salvation: rejection and suffering. Embracing the reality of suffering and rejection, accepting this as necessary and inevitable….this is what becoming a follower of Jesus means. The author of Hebrews is really telling us that unwillingness to embrace suffering and persecution to follow Christ is a flat-out denial of the Christian faith.

These are not intended to be guilt-producing words…I just want to think carefully and realistically about what Jesus did and said and accomplished so our lives reflect the truth. When we spend the time thinking about what we have been given in Jesus…forgiveness; clear-conscience, unashamed access to the throne of God; the permanent indwelling of God’s present Spirit within us; adoption as sons of God with full rights as heirs; and the list goes on and on…suffering for Christ is not a gloomy idea, but is what only makes sense. Romans 12:1 records this idea. “Therefore, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice (a living dead thing), acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.” The idea there is that, in light of the mercies, living as a sacrifice is the only reasonable response, in joy even.

Let me encourage us all this week to seek the clarity of a child’s eyes. Pray for eyes to see the truth of the world around us.  Pray for the courage to not stifle those feelings and thoughts when God grants us clarity. We often feel that we are too grown up to think the way my daughter did this evening, and to actively respond in a real and radical way, but “the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these” (Matt. 19:14, NASB).