As I travel to take the Gospel to other places in the world, one of the things I've yet to completely find a solution for is preventing my feet and ankles from swelling just a little. No matter how much I've studied how to prevent it, cut down on sodium before long flights, drank water, walked around during the flight, my feet still swell a little. At the same time, a passage of Scripture that stirs my heart more and more is Romans 10:13-15, For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” I can't help but wonder if God would have inspired Paul to write this if he'd seen my ole nasty, swole up feet after a 12 hour flight!
Yes, I'm just being stupid. I realize God is speaking from a spiritual perspective and realizes my feet have issues...even when they're not swollen after a long flight. What I'm also realizing is that just as God considers our non-visible feet beautiful when we are obedient to take His good news to the lost world, the non-visible "results" of our taking the Gospel to the lost world are just as, if not more important to God than the ones we measure or share with others. Seems everyone asks me after a mission trip the same general questions, "How many people "got saved?" or "How many people did you share the Gospel with?" While I guess it's somewhat important to be able to give at least some type of an answer to these questions, I think there is a deeper "result' than just what is measurable.
I really believe that just as Christ looks at swole up feet during/after a mission trip which requires a marathon plane flight differently than I, He guages the success of our obedience to His call to "be His witnesses to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth" differently than our practice of number/records keeping after almost all evangelistic efforts. Am I saying that results aren't important? Of course not. What I am saying is that obedience to Christ is much more than receiving our affirmation in the results we can see/record. Obedience to Christ is being faithful to continue serving Him with the promise of Isaiah 55:11, "so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it." Just as Romans 10:15 does not simply refer to the visible feet that I don't consider worthy to be uncovered, much less visible, God's blessing of our obedience to join Him in what He's doing in the world will not always be immediately visible or measurable.
When it comes to serving Christ, Just do it! Whether the results are revealed or not.
