Your Calcutta

 

“The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.” –1 Thess 5:24 (NIV)

 

Many years ago, a young boy wrote an enthusiastic letter to Mother Teresa. In it, he asked her how he could make a difference with his life, like she had with hers. He waited. For months  he  didn’t  hear  back. As  he  was  giving  up  hope  of receiving a reply, he got a letter from Calcutta, India, where Teresa had long served faithfully and purposefully. He expectantly opened it and read just four handwritten words that revolutionized  his  life:  “Find  your  own  Calcutta.”  What  a challenge we should all heed! Talk about life purpose!

 

Okay, imagine  that  you’re  living  in  the  following  situation: You’re  in  a  country  where  Christians  are  a  distinct  and increasingly despised minority. The official state policy is decidedly anti-Christian. In fact, a systematic program of harassment, imprisonment, torture, and even execution is being carried out against believers. There are few “safe places” to find refuge. To complicate matters, your country has recently lost a war and is living under occupation by foreign troops. This foreign power is theoretically neutral about religion but fears the Christian minority may destabilize the situation. Like most other Christians, you’re among the lower class with no political or economic clout. Are you getting the picture?

 

Now, as if just surviving weren’t enough, the leader of your little band  of   Christians  announces  that  you’re  going  on  an evangelistic visitation program. He hands you three assignments to choose from: (1) One is the secretary of the treasury of a powerful neighboring country who has been visiting your country for an economic conference. (2) The second is a leading official of the majority religion in your country. He is among those chiefly responsible for the increasingly brutal campaign against Christians. (3) The last name is one of the top officers of the occupying forces, a man known as a fair but tough administrator of the law. With whom would you choose to share the message and love of Christ?

 

If you survey the book of Acts, you’ll find almost the identical situation I just described. In Acts 8, the Lord ordered the Christian Philip to go down into the Gaza strip and meet an important government official from Ethiopia who was sitting in his chariot reading. I could empathize if Philip was reluctant to go. But when he got there, he found this man actually reading from the book of Isaiah and contemplating whom the prophet was writing about. When Philip identified the subject of the passage as Jesus Christ, the man believed and was baptized on the spot!