Why missions? Because God is worth it
Our daughter came home from babysitting at a neighbor’s house and said, “Did you know that Brandon has a gold medal?!”
Brandon lives across the street. I knew that he was the coach of the USA Olympic wrestling team. We had known each other for several months and he had never mentioned that he had been an Olympic athlete himself, much less the winner of a gold medal. So, the next time I saw him, I asked him about it.
It was the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney, Australia. He was in the gold medal match against a wrestler from Germany. He lost the match and had to “settle” for the silver medal. However, later the German wrestler tested positive for steroids. That is, he cheated. As a result, he was stripped of the gold medal and it was given to Brandon.
When I first heard this, I was impressed that my neighbor was a gold medalist, but then I started thinking. “So, you won the gold medal, but when they had the award ceremony, who stood on top of the podium?”
“The German,” he said.
“And when they played the national anthem, whose anthem did they play?”
“The German,” he replied.
“So, you trained your whole life. You won fair and square, and yet this German guy cheats, and at the moment you dreamed of, he gets all the glory?”
He said, “Hey, it’s not so bad. I have the gold medal.”
I couldn’t help but thinking that he got robbed. It still bothers me. On that day, he should have received the glory. It was his. He earned it, but someone else stole it.
God has shown grace to the world, both through the common grace of the blessings of everyday life and through the special grace of giving His Son for our sins. Yet, people do not acknowledge it.
As Christians, we should feel the same way about God’s glory. Throughout the Bible, we are told to give God the glory due His name (Psalm 29:2, Psalm 96:8, Revelation 4:11). God is jealous for His glory and we should be as well.
Yet, all over the earth, His glory is being given to another. God created our amazing world. Yet, people credit creation to false gods or no god at all. God has shown grace to the world, both through the common grace of the blessings of everyday life and through the special grace of giving His Son for our sins. Yet, people do not acknowledge it. His name is maligned among the nations.
As God’s people, we want to “set the record straight” about who God is and what He has done. We want people to be amazed at His beauty, awed by His power, and astonished by His glory. But those things cannot happen unless we tell them the truth about who God is and what He has done for us.
We go to the nations because God is worth it. The more passionate we are about the glory of God, the more passionate we will be to see His name glorified in all the earth.
Enjoy this reflection? You may also be interested in Does sending missionaries still make sense today?
Get good news every week! Subscribe to Stories & More for stories of God's work, videos from the missions field, and a wide range of missions topics.
Mark Bates
Mark Bates is MTW's senior director of Missions Engagement. Mark has a B.A. in Greek from Bryan College and a master's degree from RTS. He served as youth and singles pastor at Orangewood PCA, and founded University Presbyterian Church in Orlando. From 2007-2021, Mark served as senior pastor of Village Seven PCA in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Mark and his wife, Tricia, have three daughters.
