I was just a school boy when the movie A Space Odyssey first came out. Back then, it seemed that 2001 was an impossible date in the future. Now it is already history, but most of the imagery in the movie is still futuristic. However, the idea of being on an odyssey is a very present reality in all our lives. We may not be on a space odyssey, but we are all on an odyssey, pilgrimage, or mission of one sort or another. The Bible calls us “pilgrims” and “strangers.” First Peter 2:11 says, “Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.” Hebrews 11:13 declares, “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” When I was a kid, we used to sing a little song that proclaimed, “This world is not my home. I’m just ’apassing through.” It is true that Christians, like the characters in 2001 — A Space Odyssey, are only passing through Planet Earth on our individual odysseys.
The Jewish faith has long recognized this truth; they proclaim it each year in their Passover Hagaddah which begins with the proclamation that the father of the Jewish people was “a wandering Armenian.” In the Old Testament, we read of odysseys of every sort: Cain took an odyssey away from God when he went out from the presence of the Lord (Genesis 4:16); Abraham was on an odyssey toward God when the Lord caused him to wander from his father’s house in search of a land which only God could show him (Genesis 12:1, 13:17, Hebrews 11:10); Jacob’s odyssey began as he fled from his brother after robbing him of his inheritance, but turned into a journey of God’s bounty (Genesis 28:20); when the Israelites were directed to make unleavened bread and pack their kneading troughs, they realized that their odyssey was a matter of urgency (Exodus 12:34), their odyssey was soon detoured and they wandered for forty years as punishment for their unbelief (Numbers 14:33, 32:13). In the New Testament, Jesus demonstrated that an odyssey can be toward a destiny when He purposefully set Himself to go to Jerusalem. (Luke 13:22) He showed His disciples that, in their odysseys, they were to be totally dependent upon the Lord by not taking their own baggage. (Matthew 10:8-10, Mark 6:7-9, Luke 9:3, 10:3-4) He left the disciples and all future believers with a command to set out on an odyssey for the Kingdom of God: “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature…But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” (Mark 16:15, Acts 1:8)
Actually, most Americans are very poorly equipped for an odyssey — whether it be of a simply natural nature or for the purposes of the harvest. Only thirty percent of Americans possess valid passports, and — despite our immigrant roots — just one out of ten of us can speak a second language. In contrast, more than half of the people in the twenty-seven nations of the European Union are bilingual, and twenty-eight percent are trilingual. While America is home of the world-famous, yellow-bordered Nation al Geographic Magazine, less than two thirds of USA students surveyed could find Iraq on a map — where our troops are presently fighting. In addition, three fourths had no idea where Israel — the largest recipient of America’s for eign aid — was, and three out of four had no idea that Indonesia was an Islamic nation (in fact, the world’s biggest).
The US Department of Education recently pin pointed the languages most vital to this country’s future — Chinese, Arabic, Farsi, Ko rean, Japanese, Russian, Hindi, and Urdu — yet less than one percent of high school students are studying any of them. Around thirty to fifty thousand American high school and col lege students are learning Chinese, but in China — where English is mandatory for students from third grade onward — at least one hundred fifty million students currently are becoming fluent in our language. Our diplomatic efforts have often been hampered simply because we Americans have a lack of cultural awareness. We, as Americans in general and Christians in specific, should take a little advice from Mark Twain who once said, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” However, throughout the years, Christians have traditionally given three excuses for avoiding setting out on our individual and corporate odysseys and for turning the Great Commission into the Great Omission:
#1. “I haven’t been called to go.” To this remark, I reply that there is a general command which encompasses the entirety of the Body of Christ. Just as the general commands to tithe or to be filled with the Spirit or to live a holy life or to avoid the works of the flesh do not have to be personally revealed to each believer to be true, neither does the Great Commission have to be individually spoken to each of us. We were all called to go when Jesus gave the Great Commission. Some may only be sent as far as Jerusalem (their own home town), while others are sent to the uttermost parts of the earth — but we are all sent somewhere! I heard a little saying once: “Some were called; some were sent; as for me, I just got up and went!” That little poem seems to sum up a life which is totally dedicated to doing the Lord’s work — don’t wait for a big personal revelation when you can just act on the general revelation given to the whole Church. I guess that that is what was happening in Paul’s life when the Holy Spirit had to forbid him from preaching in Asia. He was just so busy about getting the Word out that rather than having to be sent, he had to be stopped from going!
#2. “I’m waiting on the Lord to speak to me.” To this excuse, I would suggest that you review the previous teaching on the difference between “wait on” and “waiting for.” Keep busy in the meantime until He speaks to you with a specific direction. As one common adage would express it, “Bloom where you are planted.” When you do that, He will take you to the next level.
#3. “I’m not prepared to go.” The funny thing about us Americans is that we think that we have to “take the kitchen sink” if we want to go anywhere. In my travels with the tour groups to Israel and the mission teams to Nepal, I’m always amazed at the amount of baggage the travelers feel they must take with them. I always wonder if the people are going to set up a homestead once they land were they are going! The truth of the matter is that we really need only a fraction of what we take. I once took my whole family on a trip through three European countries with only a backpack per person. I think that each of us had a couple changes of clothes, an extra pair of shoes, some snacks, a water bottle, and a camera. I carried my Bible, notebook, maps, travel alarm, shaving kit, glasses, sun lotion, bug repellent, travelers checks, and our passports. When we returned two and a half weeks later, no one complained of not having had anything, and we all rejoiced at how easy the trip had been. The point of the story is that we really can get by and can accomplish a lot more than we think without all the extra baggage that we think we need. Jesus even told His disciples to go out with less than a backpack! (Luke 10:4)
Gideon learned that he didn’t need thousands of soldiers — just three hundred. The disciples learned that they didn’t need tons of food to feed the multitude — just five loaves and two fish. The demoniac of Gadara learned that he didn’t have to become a disciple to be a witness — he just went back home and shared his testimony and brought the whole region to an awareness of the Lord.
I certainly believe in a good biblical education, but for most of the places we go around the world, just a simple knowledge of John 3:16 will qualify you to do missionary work. Compared to the rest of the world, the least of us has a wealth to share. If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture or the pains of starvation, you are ahead of five hundred million people around the world. If you can express your beliefs without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death, you are more blessed that almost three billion people in the world. If you have food in your refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a place to sleep, you are richer than seventy-five percent of this world. If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace, you are among the top eight percent of the world’s wealthy. If you own just one Bible, you are abundantly blessed. One third of the world does not have access to even one.
One church in Kathmandu, Nepal — a third world country — has over three hundred of its members go on out-of-town and out-of-the-country missions each year. I wonder if there is any church in the first world which could match that. Add to that the fact that Nepal has only had a few years of religious freedom, and the church there is still in the process of establishing itself, yet it is aggressively sharing what little it already has.
Of course, we are all anticipating the real space odyssey — the Rapture when “the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” (I Thessalonians 4:16-17) But until that day, we are to be busy about the work — of the kingdom of taking and occupying this planet until He comes.
Knowing that God has an odyssey of adventure awaiting us, we must ask ourselves as did the leprous men of old, “Why sit we here till we die?” (II Kings 7:3) Or should I say, “Why do we sit here until they die?” It may no longer be the year 2001, but this year — any year — is a great time to begin your odyssey for the Lord. Maybe it will be through a short-term mission trip. Maybe it will through a commitment as a career missionary. Maybe it will be through a decision to be more prayerfully or financially involved. Maybe it will be a mission across the street rather than across the sea. Maybe it will be an odyssey to the mall rather than to Malaysia. But whatever it may be, let this year be the first step on your odyssey to take the gospel to the ends of the earth!