Lately, I’ve been struggling with my concept of God… but I’m
getting ahead of myself.
Does anyone else ever think about how many people there are
in the world? I mean, over seven billion
now? Really? That’s just mind boggling. Think slowly… seven… billion… people. Try to imagine. The United States is a drop in the
bucket. The state of Washington, a
molecule. Longview, a
quark. My church,
infinitesimal beyond imagination… a grain of sand compared to a solar system.
And we Christians and our churches say we are trying to “reach the world for
Christ?” Have you ever really thought
about that? I mean, really? Isn’t this awfully naïve? Do we need to rethink our language here? Can mere human beings really “reach the world
for Christ” anyway? Is this honestly an
empty cliché or an attainable goal? Someone hates me now, because I actually think. Oh well, read on if you dare.
When Jesus walked on earth, there were only about 200
million people by most estimates. Then,
things seemed doable, I guess. Just
think if we only had to cover about half of the United States. Ok, less mind boggling.
By most estimates, somewhere between 250,000 and 300,000
people die every single day. That’s not
one of my favorite facts, but at the same time, considerably more than that number
are born every single day. When seven
billion people start having babies, the population explodes.
According to Pew research, there were 600 million Christians
in 1910 and over two billion in 2011. We
nearly quadrupled the Christians in the world! Cool! That’s an evangelism explosion, man! Problem is, in 1910 thirty-five percent of
the world was Christian. Now it’s down
to thirty-three percent. Yeah, even
though we’ve quadrupled the number of Christians, we still haven’t kept up with
the population. Sure, there are more
believers on earth today than ever before, but there are also more unbelievers
than ever before. Not exactly
encouraging, considering that means there are more people entering Hell every
day than ever before in history, or did the reader forget that’s what the Bible
says happens to people who die apart from Christ?
Sorry, this is really sad and serious so far. I should have warned that this is not for the
feint of heart. Note the title of my
blog. I write to think and think to
write. Sorry for bringing you along as I
wallow in the mire.
[And in yet another corner of my mind, I tell myself, “Is
Heaven really big enough for the two billion Christians already on earth right
now? Are we going to have population
problems in the new heaven and the new earth? I was really looking forward to meeting Paul. Will I even be able to find him?” I know, I’m terrible.]
There are over four billion people in Asia and less than ten
percent of them are Christians. Most
have never even heard of Jesus. If one
were to think about this too long, one might wind up on a plane. But then, even
if a bunch of us learned the languages and overcame oppressive governments to
“win Asia for Christ,” and even if we could miraculously reach, say, a billion
of them in the next twenty years, how much of that would just be keeping up
with the population growth? Regardless, there’d
still be at least three billion unreached. Discouraging.
I’m no Calvinist (apologies to those who are), but thinking
like this does help me see their side of the truth. Either God does this thing, or it doesn’t get
done. Something needs to happen like nothing that has ever happened
before… something more explosive, even, than what happened in the first several
centuries of Christianity. One thing I
know, we can’t reach the world for Christ unless it is through a MAJOR move of God, and I’m
talking about miracles here. We can’t do
this like we've been doing it. We can't do it ourselves... not even if we tack the words "with God's help" onto the end of our sentence. Maybe it’s time we admitted only God can get this done.
But now I'm back to my initial thought. I mentioned that I’ve been struggling with my
concept of God. He just doesn’t seem big
enough. The world seems so huge. What does the God who initially created just
one man and one woman think of the seven billion of us now? Seems impossible that God could care about
enough people to fill every square foot of Texas with just a few feet in
between us (yep, seven billion would fill Texas with wall to wall people). But that’s when it hits me. HE IS BIG ENOUGH! God is big enough. Here I was thinking of God as if He were a
slightly more powerful version of ME or something like that. I’m such a moron, but some of you already knew that.
Have you ever thought your way from inner space to outer space? I won’t even start as small as scientists now
can. I’ll just start with an atom. One
atom has a nucleus made up of protons and neutrons, with electrons orbiting
that nucleus in just such a way as to not collide. The number of neutrons and
protons and electrons determine the properties of each atom, and different atoms
come together to form molecules that, together, determine the properties of whatever
matter they compose. Put millions of
molecules together and now we can actually see what we’re talking about,
sometimes. There’s so much of this going
on in my office right now, that I can’t even get my head around it. How many atoms in my desk, I wonder? Billions, I would imagine. And I’m not even thinking about living matter,
like the cells in my body, each one a universe of its own. I’m just thinking about dead stuff: inner space.
Meanwhile, there’s also outer space, in which inner space
gets completely lost. The moon spins on its axis
while orbiting around the earth, which is simultaneously also spinning on its axis while orbiting around the
sun in such a way as not to collide with the other planets (or their moons, each of which spins and orbits) in
our tiny solar system, which together forms a fraction of a part of one galaxy,
made up of countless solar systems, within countless galaxies in what is
perhaps, an infinite universe. How many
atoms are in the moon?
Oh, and by the way, my God made all that in like a couple of
days.
Seven billion people? There are countless more solar systems than there are people on earth… far
more stars than hairs on the heads of every person on earth. God must be looking down and thinking, “Hmm,
still just seven billion? Maybe I should
wait awhile longer.”
God is in control. As
Romans 8:29-30 says, “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become
conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many
brethren; and whom He predestined, these He also called, and whom He called,
these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.” I’m not interested in debating the nuances of
what this means. I’m pretty sure though,
that there’s one thing I can take from this passage without any kind of stretch,
and that is: God’s got this.
I am not, by any means, abdicating my calling as a follower
of Christ, to take the Gospel to all nations. What I am doing is remembering Who is in control, and Who is ultimately
responsible for those seven billion people, and it isn’t me. I don’t understand how, but God IS getting
the job done as He sees fit, and I am thankful that He’s using me to do a little
bit here and there. He doesn’t need me,
but He uses me anyway, even in spite of my momentary doubts and minuscule faith.
How big is my God?
Big enough.
