One of the greatest joys of this season of my life is that I get to coach pee-wee contact football. A fascinating moment occurs when a brand-new pee-wee discovers that contact football is actually about contact. When he’s issued his new equipment, he might think that all the excitement is really about the gear, but when the first day of practice rolls around, the new pee-wee finds himself in a series of shocking collisions that seem surprisingly intentional and for which no one is offering an apology. In such a moment, the new pee-wee is actually forced to make a choice: Does he really want to be a football player, or not?

Sometimes pee-wees need help in clarifying the choice. I can actually remember the moment when my mother clarified that choice for me. I was coming home in the car from one of my early practices, and I told my mom that I had had enough. My mom, however, helped me to see that contact was precisely what football was about. She could have acted as though it was possible to be both a football player and to avoid the contact, but that would not have been true.

Good parents, I think, help their kids clarify the reality of life’s choices. God, our heavenly Father, is a good parent. He likewise loves us deeply enough to clarify the actual choices of life. This is not always easy for me to hear, but I am so glad He does not withhold the best by failing to tell me the truth. One significant choice that our heavenly Father wants us to make is this: Do we want to be brave, or do we want to be safe? Gently, lovingly, our heavenly Father wants us to know that we simply cannot be both.  

Seeing God’s Will in Suffering

Following God’s will in a fallen world is inherently dangerous. Over and over in Scripture, Jesus teaches us that His disciples will suffer for following Him. Of course, we will avoid a lot of suffering by following Him. We will avoid the suffering of guilt, the suffering of self-destruction, of spending an eternity in hell. However, there are other kinds of suffering we will encounter precisely because we are following Him. And He wants us to be clear about this. In fact, in 1 Peter it says, “Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good? But, even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed … . Keep your conscience clear, so that when you are maligned, those who abuse you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than to suffer for doing evil.”

There are two things that are always the will of God, and always dangerous in a fallen world: Telling the truth. And loving needy people.

So some suffering can clearly be God’s will. It is not necessarily the suffering itself that is God’s will, but rather, in a fallen world, following the will of God will generate suffering in our lives. In fact, there are two things that are always the will of God and always dangerous in a fallen world: telling the truth and loving needy people. In fact, if my life of following Jesus does not feel dangerous, I should probably pause and check to see if it’s Jesus I am following.

Doing what Jesus does—telling the truth and loving needy people—is inherently unsafe in a fallen world of lies and selfishness. As Christians, we have heard much about speaking the truth, so I would like to focus on the other dangerous activity that Jesus invites us all to do—loving needy people. Jesus said all the teaching of the law and the prophets could be summed up in these two commands: loving God and loving our neighbor, especially our needy neighbor. 1 John 4:20 says, “For anyone who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.”

Think about those in your family who are most needy and hurting, those in our church fellowship who are suffering the most, those in our community who are in the most need, those on the other side of the city who are most vulnerable. Serving them and loving them is uncomfortable. It can even be dangerous. Paradoxically, Jesus tells us this is where we can find the deepest joy. Based on the experience that my colleagues and I have had at International Justice Mission, I think this is true. Not safe, but true.

International Justice Mission (IJM) is a collection of Christian lawyers, criminal investigators, and trauma social workers who take on cases of abuse and oppression from Christian ministries serving amongst the poor. Our international staff brings us cases of violence, slavery, and sexual exploitation. We investigate these cases to bring about four things: one, we rescue the victims; two, we provide them with aftercare; three, we bring the perpetrators to justice; and four, we bring structural prevention to keep the abuses from happening again.

One category of neighbors we at IJM are trying to love is slaves. More than 20 million people in our world live as slaves. They are not metaphorical slaves. They actually live as the property of another person. A woman I know named Shaybia was locked away in a rice mill for five years with her family. They worked seven days a week, 16 hours a day. About 100 other slaves were also locked away in this rice mill. If anyone tried to run away, they were grabbed, brought back, and beaten viciously in front of the others. The children did not play; they worked 16 hours a day until they dropped. The owners and overseers repeatedly sexually assaulted the women and girls. Now, we wondered, how could we love those neighbors? And would it be safe?

About the International Justice Mission

International Justice Mission (IJM) started in 1997 as a small handful of American lawyers in Washington, D.C. Now it is comprised of 350 full-time staff around the world in 14 offices, all trying to love neighbors who are suffering because of violence, abuse, and oppression. The vast majority of those working for IJM are nationals serving in their own communities. To learn more, visit www.ijm.org.

Significant vs. Successful

John Richmond was a young lawyer on the fast track with a successful law firm in Roanoke, Va. He heard that IJM needed a lawyer to help slaves like Shaybia. Of course, packing up his wife and young family and moving to the developing world to confront violent slave-owners was not safe. However, sometimes the will of God is scary because He asks us to choose between being brave and being safe in order to love those who are in need. John’s colleagues and associates scoffed at him and his decision to go. “What do you mean you’re going to rescue slaves? It will never work! You’ll imperil your family. You’ll have no future. You’re a fool.” They felt free enough to call him an idiot. Sometimes your choice to be brave instead of smart will be threatening to those who are smart rather than brave. That’s why the Bible warns that you will be maligned, not congratulated. But that’s what it’s going to take to show the love of Christ to Shaybia.