As many of you know, I was born in
a tiny village in Orissa sorrounded by majestic mountains. I had a dream as a
boy to travel and go places. The Lord has been gracious to me. He has granted
me His favor. He has blessed beyond belief and has made it possible for me to
travel and see the world. I have been so blessed and privileged to go places
around the world and share the Gospel of Christ. My daughter Sunita has my
DNA. She loves to travel and the Lord has been so gracious to her that she
travels the world for the sake of the kingdom of God.
In his wonderful book, "The Island of Lost Maps", author Miles Harvey
shares a sentiment with which I think many of us can probably
resonate.
In my 30's I spent a great deal of time at the Kopi [a travelers' café in Chicago] whose walls were adorned with masks from Bali and shelves filled with guides to far-flung destinations. I was then the literary critic for Outside Magazine, a great job but one that was beginning to wear on my patience. You see, the books I read were about people who climbed Himalayan peaks, rode a bicycle all the way across Africa, sailed wooden boats across the Atlantic, or tracked into restricted areas of China. These tales of adventure filled my days and my imagination, and yet my own life was anything but adventurous. The interior of the Kopi coffee shop was ringed by clocks, each one showing the time in some distant locale, and as I watched the weeks ticking away in places like Timbuctu and Juno and Goa and Denpasar, I began to long for an adventure of my own.
Harvey said that he loved looking
at maps. He said he was acting like a character in a Joseph Conrad novel who
said, "When I grow up I will go there." So Harvey would look for hours at
exciting places in South America, Africa, or Australia and lose himself in the
glories of possible adventures around the world.
Many of us can likely identify with those sentiments. There
are times we grow weary of the routine, of the way things are. There have been
those who have said, "Yes, yes, I want to go there."
"As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen." That was their life, their box, their world. "'Come, follow me,' Jesus said, 'and I will make you fishers of men.'" Jesus was opening a whole new way of life to them - something beyond their wildest imaginings. He would take them just as they were, teach them how to live in a new and better way, with more impact and more influence. He would literally make them fishers of men. "At once they left their nets and followed him. Going on from there, Jesus saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him."
In recent modern conversations we examine the difference between being a tourist and being a traveler / pilgrim. Many spend their lives as tourists. The Lord, however, calls to take the journey with Him. It is full of adventure and thrill. Something amazing has come to meet us in the person and the mission of Jesus Christ to draw us out of where we are living now into His life. When He says to us, "Come follow me," it is the most amazing invitation we will ever get. Let us say yes to His invitation. Let us take some steps in His direction and we will have a life that is much more incredible than anything we could ask or imagine.
In Christ,
Brown
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