A Piece of Kake

I like to think I sacrifice for God’s Kingdom. Whether it’s giving up a couple hours of sleep, driving someone to a Bible study, leaving my social comfort zone, or studying hard for a teaching, I like to think that the inconveniences I experience in ministry are quite sacrificial. This makes me feel like I’m doing something right; like I’m somehow really entering the fellowship of Christ’s suffering. I know I’ve got it pretty easy here in my middle-class American life, but I do suffer at least somewhat for God’s Kingdom. Or do I?

David Livingstone, an early missionary to Africa, boldly stated: “I never made a sacrifice.”

Come again?

When missionaries headed for Africa in Livingstone’s day, they packed their belongings in their coffins. They knew they’d serve there until death, which often arrived shortly after they did. Between encountering foreign diseases, trying to scrounge up basic supplies, living without the medical and scientific advancements of their homelands, and facing both corporeal and spiritual warfare, these missionaries seemed to sacrifice everything. Not to mention the regular hardships of ministry with which we’re familiar.

At first his statement doesn’t make sense. Next it sounds like super-spiritual or motivational rhetoric. But then it echoes Paul’s words, when he called all the beatings, shipwrecking, and imprisonments “momentary light affliction.” It brings to mind how Paul considered all the status, prestige, and prerogatives of the world “rubbish” compared to suffering for Christ—and that while he was in prison!

Like Paul’s “eternal weight of glory,” Livingstone saw heaven as more than enough incentive for a little so-called “sacrifice” here on earth. “Is that a sacrifice which brings its own blest reward in…a bright hope of a glorious destiny hereafter?” Good point: is it really a sacrifice when we’re going to be rewarded and glorified in an eternal future with our Father? Sounds more like a good investment to me.

Livingstone didn’t only look to the future, but also to the “healthful activity, the consciousness of doing good, [and] peace of mind” that came during this life. God’s work is also the only way we gain true significance in this life and the next. I often share or teach about how fulfilling it is to have a purpose in life, but do I actually believe this? The question is settled by whether I see God’s work as a sacrifice or a privilege. The Almighty didn’t have to include us in His work. But because He has, we have the opportunity to change the landscape of eternity. What could be more significant than that?

Livingstone’s words, along with the examples of countless missionaries now and in the past, motivate me to “entrust [my] soul to the faithful Creator in doing what is right” (1 Pet. 4:19). There is no reason to hold back if I believe that God is truly good. Maybe this attitude will take me to the missions field one day; for now I hope it revolutionizes my relationships with God, my friends who don’t know God, those I disciple, and my family. I want to be persecuted because of my privilege, not my sacrifice.

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