Sitting in Starbucks today
Just
Thinking.
My mind switches in flashback speed to a few years back.
To a place so terrible.
Auschwitz.
Poland.
Dawn and I were drawn there on a ministry exercise.
To pray.
God had said to us he had something to show us there.
And he showed us lots.
But sitting here in Starbucks on a break from the mission field.
Just an hour.
My mind takes me back to a dark cell in the basement of the infamous block 10.
I had stood in the horrendous 3 ft by 3 ft space with a very low ceiling where they used to cram four prisoners at a time.
I thought of the wall where millions were shot and killed.
The horrible laboratories where the most dreadful of experiments were carried out especially by Mengele.
I remember how my heart cried out for my Saviour in that place.
Since that time I have read a lot about this concentration camp. I have read of the courage of the inmates, the escape attempts, the dramatic rescue attempts, the eventual liberation of those held in this camp. I've read about the pointless waste of life administered by an evil regime.
Then.
My mind switched to another place.
To the Vatican City.
Roma.
Where the spaces are vast. Adorned with beautiful art worth fortunes. The ceilings ain't low there.
And in my head a question arises.
"Where would you rather operate?"
I had to admit my heart was in the cell.
I think if my favorite book in the bible.
Paul's letter to Timothy.
I think of where some of that was written in a small cell while waiting to be beheaded for living out his faith.
A dangerous place.
And.
It dawns on me that some of the most profound scripture was written by real heroes of the faith from very difficult situations, not from the lavishness of the exotic temple or the comfortable place.
And.
I feel a strong calling on my own life.
I have met some pretty desperate people, ministered in some pretty dangerous places so far.
I think of the "sermon" I once preached to sixty gang members in a self built headquarters amongst some trees in a city. How I had been invited in because they thought I was OK. I remember feeling that I should be scared as I saw those brooding, angry faces looking towards me, but I was filled with courage. I remember as I told them about Jesus and how a quietness descended on that very dangerous place. How tears began to stream down some of their faces and how some just turned and walked away.
Yeah.
My heart is in the cell.
In the place where the most need is.
And I think how my ministry is shaped not in the comfortable walls of the church building but in amongst the dangerous places of peoples lives. In the mess, in the darkness, in the prison like dangerous spaces of peoples lives.
And I feel God saying this today.
We are called to make a difference in his world. I pray today that we would choose the danger of the cell over the lavishness of the church.
So we can rescue the people who live there.
Blessings today.
