Our stumbling steps of faith, our efforts to share Jesus, can feel weak and foolish. But God chooses to use the weak things of the world and, as Richard encourages us, we can have confidence in his perfect wisdom in doing so.
What is infinity? Why is water wet? Are we nearly there yet? Children ask the most difficult questions. Yet parents who want to do the best for their children face an even trickier question: ‘What is best?’
More broadly, every Christian who wants to glorify the name of Jesus and lead others to faith in him must ask the same question. ‘I want to help my neighbours, colleagues and friends realise that Jesus is Lord. What is the best way to do that? I try telling people about Jesus, but it comes out sounding foolish, and I end up feeling weak. Is this really the best way?’
The question is even more complicated for mission partners as they arrive in a new place and begin to live among unfamiliar people. They would be the first to acknowledge they don’t know everything there is to know, and they don’t think straight because, like us, they continue to wrestle with sin. Factor in the additional complexities of crossing cultures, and they may find it easier to tell you why water is wet than explain the best way to do mission.
However, the question becomes an awful lot easier to answer if someone who knows what is best tells us what is best. Moreover, if the person telling us isn’t simply speaking from more years of experience or dishing out good advice based on trial and error, then that is a game-changer. If he has exhaustive, comprehensive knowledge and understanding of all that is, then I can be confident that what he says really is best. If he is the one through whom all things exist and by whose decree they all act; if he is eternal, infinite and unchangeable; if he fills the universe and is fully present at the same time to all creatures, then it follows that he alone knows what is best. His wisdom is perfect. He is perfect. He knows best.
‘Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgements and how inscrutable his ways! For from him and through him and to him are all things.’ (Romans 11:33, 36)
God’s perfect wisdom means that when he sent his Son to die for us on the cross, there was no better way to save us. That was the best way. It means that when he tells us to preach Christ and his cross, there is no better way to bring about faith and repentance among the nations. Speaking about Christ and his cross is the best way.
As we engage in global mission, whether as goers or senders, the Lord’s perfect wisdom is great reassurance. The stories in this magazine and in prayer letters from around the world testify to the fact that none of us are perfectly wise. We could all give examples of opportunities missed, conversations botched and relationships damaged. We all know what it’s like to reach the end of the day and think, ‘I could have done that better.’ Yet, his wisdom is perfect, so we take heart. We reflect on our Father’s inscrutable wisdom – sending his Son to the cross and then sending us to proclaim him to the nations – and we find it impossible to think, ‘He could have done that better.’
So, ‘Are we nearly there yet?’ Nearly, but let’s keep going. Let’s keep walking with confidence, step by step. Because the proclamation of Christ and his cross by people who feel weak and foolish is the best way.