Sometimes discouragement creeps in when we focus on results. Human nature tends toward pragmatism (If it works, do it. If it doesn’t work…don’t.) and when we don’t see things happening the way we want them to, we want to jump ship or at least curl into the fetal position and have a pity party.
Doing evangelism in a place where people are devout idol enthusiasts is a different level of hard for me than I’ve ever experienced. The other day I was walking to the corner store in town. As I passed an older man (probably in his 80’s?) who I’ve seen around town a lot, I went to say “buenas tardes” (good afternoon) as is customary, and he stopped in his tracks, put his hand up to protect his face from my glance, and turned his head into the wall, muttering something akin to “don’t talk to me.” What the what!? I was flabbergasted, to be honest. This isn’t the first time this has happened, but it was definitely the most extreme. Most people have finally warmed up to me, but this… this really bothered me. Discouragement says, “what are we doing wrong here?! I’ve been overly nice to every single person in this town! I haven’t shoved the Gospel down anyone’s throats! Why after a year do we have no new Christians in San Pedro!!!? God, how can I change to see results here!?”
I’ve had this song stuck in my head for days now from when I was a teenager, and mostly a phrase in it.
“So what’s the point of wasting all my words
if it’s just the same or even worse
than reading poems to a horse?”
Don’t make fun of me, it’s from a Shakira song in the early 2000’s. I’m not proud of my former taste in music… let’s just say it was eclectic and leave it at that.
Anyway, these random song lyrics have stuck with me lately. I think some of us (maybe the vast majority of us) feel like “well what’s the point of saying anything when it’s just going to be rejected? What’s the point when no one listens?” Even when you generally DON’T say anything unless someone asks, when it’s constantly rejected it begins to feel a little pointless… a bit like reading poems to a horse, or I guess like giving a cat a book of military strategy to read.
Silly, but adorable. What kind of cat likes military strategy!?
The Lord brought Jeremiah to my mind when I started thinking about all this. Jeremiah was probably about 17 when he was called to be a prophet, so he was just a kid trying to be obedient to God. We call him the weeping prophet because not only did everyone turn their backs on him, no matter how much he preached to the people and shared God’s Word with them, no one would listen! Can you imagine?! Not a single convert, and God is LITERALLY using his mouth to speak to the people.
Pragmatism and discouragement say to Jeremiah, “It’s not working! STOP IT!!! You’ve lost everyone, no one likes you, no one is listening, people actually want to kill you, you’re a total FAILURE!” In Jeremiah 15 we really see the brokenhearted conversation between Jeremiah and God. The discouragement settled in and he basically said (my paraphrase), “God, when you first called me I had so much joy when I spoke for you! Why, then, am I in such pain now? Why have you done this to me? No one is listening!” God responds with the following, which I think is so beautiful…
19Therefore, thus says the LORD,
“If you return, then I will restore you—
Before Me you will stand;
And if you extract the precious from the worthless,
You will become My spokesman.
They for their part may turn to you,
But as for you, you must not turn to them.
20“Then I will make you to this people
A fortified wall of bronze;
And though they fight against you,
They will not prevail over you;
For I am with you to save you
And deliver you,” declares the LORD.
Jeremiah 15:19-20
So God’s response is not, “yeah, it’s not working, let’s come up with a different plan.” No! God’s response is “Yeah, I know it’s not working, but I want you to keep doing it, and I’ll be with you!” He knows it’s hard. He knows it feels fruitless, but He called Jeremiah to do a task and He encourages Jeremiah to continue despite the hardship.
We know that God’s ways are not our ways, but sometimes we get so caught up in our humanity that we think we’re doing something wrong when we’re doing exactly what God wants us to be doing. It’s time for us to stop looking at numbers, statistics, and “results,” and start looking at God!
With that, I’ll leave you with the story of Svea Flood and the village of N’dolera. Please read it and be encouraged. We don’t always see the results of who we tell about Jesus, but God is faithful! Don’t give up.
Story of Svea Flood:
-Priscilla