When our first child was only two weeks old my wife got an infection that caused her a lot of pain and rendered her unable to nurse (note: a hungry baby is NOT a happy baby). At 1 am our collective misery peaked, and we decided to call our doctor. We discovered that the problem could be easily remedied for both mom and baby, but we first needed to get a prescription. The doctor sent the prescription to a 24-hour pharmacy, and I headed out at 1am to find said pharmacy. We lived in the NYC metro area, and I was only familiar with our tiny little sector of the world, which did not have a 24-hour pharmacy (this was back in the “dark ages,” aka pre-smartphones). I took several wrong turns, and ended up in some pretty choice areas of the city. Yet, the whole time, I remained singularly focused on delivering the medicine to help my wife and child. I eventually found the pharmacy, got the meds, and went home. Within an hour my wife felt better and was able to feed the baby again. Peace, happiness, and health had returned.
I share this story to illustrate a reality I fear all of us (myself included) often forget about. As believers, we have access to the ultimate medicine for world’s ills: the gospel of Jesus Christ. We have the ability to share this eternal life giving medicine with everyone who needs it. Yet, far to often, we choose to not deliver the medicine. We choose to not help those who are in desperate need of the healing that only God can give. Jesus speaks of this problem, and its solution, in Luke chapter 10.
The Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go. And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Luke 10:1-2
Jesus put His perfect finger on the problem. There are plenty of people in need of God’s hope, and there is certainly plenty of hope to go around. The problem is that too few of us are willing to share that hope with those who desperately need it. It was a no brainer for me, as I am sure it would be for you, to deliver the medicine that my wife and child desperately needed. Yet, I too often don’t treat those without Jesus with the same sort of loving urgency. We need to treat those in need of God’s grace, love, and hope with that same type of live. Who around you needs the medicine you already have access to? Who do you need to lovingly share this medicine with this month? May we all come to deliver the medicine of the gospel with a sense of loving urgency.
