Will You Go?

There’s a song out there by Starfield called “I Will Go”. It is an amazingly inspiring song, the chorus goes I will go, I will go, I will go Lord send me! and later on it says take everything I am, I’m clay within your hands. It brings back memories of Isaiah 6:8: “Here I am! Send me” and of Matthew 28:19 “Go...and make disciples”. I think that this idea of “I will go Lord, send me! I surrender everything I am, clay within your hands!” is a very good one, but we need to be careful when we shout it out: God may take us seriously.

Now you are probably thinking “of course I want God to take me seriously! I will go wherever He sends me!” and if you’re serious, good on you! But we need to remember what that entails.

When Jesus told His disciples “Go...and make disciples of all nations”, He knew full well what that meant. Jesus had 12 close friends; the apostles whom He loved greatly. Of the 11 remaining apostles (remember, Judas is now dead), only one dies of old age. The rest were killed, some in gruesome, excruciating (literally) ways. They were all beaten multiple times, most likely to within lashes of death. When Jesus told them to go, He knew what was coming for His closest friends.

Things are no different. All you have to do is look at organizations like Voice Of The Martyrs to see just how little things have changed. When you think about it, we’re still roughly at that death-by-execution to death-by-old-age ration of 10:1. Those deaths may mostly be in other countries, but if you’re truly willing to go wherever the Lord sends you, you have to be ready to go there. You may stay where you are, safe and sound, or you may end up running for your life from the authorities in North Korea. If you sing “I Will Go” from your heart, you have to be ready to go and do what He calls you to.

This rings especially true to me. God has called me into Mission Aviation. Although that kind of ministry usually does not operate in countries where Christianity is illegal, it is still a very dangerous form of ministry. Just a few days before I left home to come here to PBI, a student in the flight school at my home was flying a plane (that actually used to belong to the flight school I’m entering), when he crashed. He was killed in the crash, and the plane was destroyed. No one knows how it happened, the student already had his license and was an excellent pilot, but it still happened. I am often reminded of this incident as I am about to enter into aviation. I also will be flying small planes. Once I enter into ministry proper, I will still be flying small planes in very hostile environments. Mission pilots can and have died on the field. In fact an acquaintance of mine was recently flying in Angola when he suffered an engine failure. Fortunately he remembered his emergency procedures, was able to get the plane running again, and landed safely. But what If the procedures hadn’t worked? Well, I prefer not to think about the results.

I will go where God has sent me, but I do not take the decision lightly. Nor should you, no matter where God has called you.