As I type this (written 10/9/10) a memorial service is being held at my home church for Tom L*ttle. He was one of ten murdered by the Taliban in Afghanistan on August 5 as they were trying to reach a remote village with medical help and supplies. It is hard for me to even know how to respond to these events. Often, I hear of these events and I am ashamed to say that they often feel distant. Well, this one wasn’t distant. A week before I left for Germany Tom was sharing at our church and asking for prayer for this particular trip. This is a family that our church has been connected with for decades. A family I have respected and prayed for as they lived and served faithfully in such a hard and dangerous place.
It also hit home in a new way as I now have students in my class whose parents work in hard places just like Tom and his family. I have one student that comes into my classroom every day during lunch to chat before class. His parents are serving in Afghanistan. And that is just one example. Many of my students’ families live and serve in hard and dangerous places. I have been using my walk to and from school each day to pray for my students and their families and the ministries they are involved in.
The older I get the more conscious I have become of the great and sometimes drastic lengths that God will go to reach His children. A couple of weeks ago I sat in a room with my fellow teachers at our faculty retreat. We spent some time praying for the school, our students, and for our supporters. As I looked around the room I was hit with the reality of how many people it takes to make it possible for us to be here and for us to remain here. It takes an army of people. And why has God raised up an army of people to make it possible? Because God loves these kids and their families. How humbling that I get to be a part of expressing that love!
And in the same way, God loves the Afghans, even those who killed Tom and the others. He loves them enough to send a light into their midst. "There's a sense in which Tom's life was not taken, Tom gave his life and he gave it not on that terrible August day, but he gave it 33 years earlier when he passed up a lucrative career to serve his friends in Afghanistan." (a quote by my dad in The Times Union newspaper). He gave his life away the day he chose God’s way and not his own. While the cost was particularly high for Tom and especially his family – it was one he was willing to pay for the Savior he loved so much and for the Afghans he gave his life serving. Those who ‘took’ his life were not ready for death but he was and I can only imagine the welcome he received in heaven and the joy of being ushered into the presence of Jesus – face to face with the One he had served and loved so faithfully.
His life and death challenge me. His deep love of Afghanistan and its precious people give me a glimpse into the heart of our Father who loves His children the way that Tom loved the Afghan people and even more. I pray that the God of all comfort will be a husband to Libby and a father to their girls. That they will sense His presence even in the midst of the loss and heartache. May Jesus use the willingness of these ten to lay down their lives to bring many to Him. May their lives and deaths challenge each one of us and remind us of what it means to be a Christ-follower. They willingly became the “aroma of Christ among those that are saved and among those who are perishing.” (II Cor. 2:15) The love of God compelled them and they chose to “no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.” (II Cor. 5:15)
The only way I know how to respond is to pray:
May I be found faithful of the One who loved me enough to send His one and only Son so that I might know Him!
May I love those around me with the agape love of God the Father!
May I say YES to Jesus in every area of my life, living for Him and Him alone!
May the aroma of Christ be on me!
Jesus, may others see YOU in me!
I John 3:16 - This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.
