An Urgent Kind of Urgency

Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.” How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.” Otherwise you are boasting about your own plans, and all such boasting is evil.

Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.

(James 4:13-17)


While churning custards and working in the kitchen I usually listen to music, but sometimes I listen to audio sermons or podcasts. Today morning I listened to this (Living with Urgency Pt.1 by Francis Chan) and yesterday I listened to this (Caring for the Lost by K.P Yohannan).

There was a man told of in the second message, a man fresh out of bible college who felt led to share the love of Christ to a nearby village in India. A village notorious for chasing away men with intentions like his. He went, regardless, and true (and soon) enough he was told to leave, or be killed. Frightened he went back to his mission station, who then asked him, "Did Jesus really call you to go there?" He answered yes, it's something he had been praying for for a year and knew in his heart that was what God wanted. "Then go back. They might come back for you. There's a tiny possibility that you might die. But if there is where you must lay your life..." Going back could very well bring his life to an end. If going back means death, then so be it.

He wept, went back, and a mob went after him, and asked him why did he come back? "Now you'll make us all murderers."

He replied, "The sooner you do your job, the better for me. There's no way I'm leaving this place. I'm already dead."

The outcome of the story is a pretty happy one, but he wouldn't have known that at that very moment, surrounded by men who wanted to kill him. All he knew was that God had spoken, and that was all that counts.

Not all of us will find ourselves surrounded by a murderous mob, or face death for His sake. But will we be able to come to a place where we can let go of our hold on life and lay no claim on it, but say, "My life is Yours completely"?



For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. (Philippians 1:21)