Gone

I wrote the following article for Keeping Current, a monthly publication of Northwest Yearly Meeting's Board of Global Outreach:

Gone are the days when missionaries left their homes, never to return, taking with them all their belongings packed inside their own coffins. It took William Carey 5 months to sail from England to Bengal in 1793. I can get on a plane tomorrow and be in Portland in about 15 hours.
Gone are the days when letters from the mission field took weeks at best to reach their destination and weeks again to receive a reply. Now, I can talk to anyone anywhere in the world live by using my computer equipped with an Internet connection and Skype. If we both have web cams, we can even see each other in real time as we speak together.

Gone are the days when missionaries all but completely severed ties with their home culture when they left for the mission field. Like it or not, media shapes much of what a culture is. Music. Television. Movies. All of these things, I can download to my computer and listen to and/or watch at my convenience through iTunes. That is exactly what inspired the writing of this article.

The other day, I downloaded a few songs by one of my favorite bands, Switchfoot. The lyrics to a couple of the songs served as a wake-up call for me. First, here is a portion of the song, Gone.

Gone, like yesterday is gone,
Like history is gone,
The world keeps spinning on,
You’re going, going, gone

Now, take a look at an excerpt from the song, This Is Your Life.

This is your life and today is all you've got now
And today is all you'll ever have

There is a compelling urgency in these lyrics that provoked me to question how intentionally I’m living each of my God-given days, especially in our current situation in Russia. Once a year, we must leave Russia in order to apply for new visas that will allow us to return and stay for another year. We’re fast-approaching another one of those times.

In mid-September, Lord willing, we will fly to Germany and then drive to France to apply in person at the Russian consulate in Strasbourg. Based on current trends in Russia and disturbing peculiarities in our application process thus far, we have a genuine concern that our request for new visas may be denied.

At the same time, we recently learned that the school at which we taught English last year was just permanently closed, taking away a fantastic opportunity for ministry. With such an uncertain future, we are naturally led to evaluate the lasting effects of our time and efforts here. That’s what makes TODAY so crucial.

I don’t want to sound paranoid. I know I can’t control whether I’m granted a new visa, how long I’ll be able to live in Russia, or really much of anything else, but I can control how I spend my days. I can choose to wile away the days of uncertainty now, or I can live like each day brings me closer to eternity with God, perhaps leaving the people whom He has given me to disciple in the dark forever.

We read in James 4:14, “Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” Every day is a gift from God, given for a purpose. What is that purpose? Only God knows. How will you spend each day, reminiscing about the past, dreaming about the future or living as though it were your last?

Patrick Neifert