Inspiration

I often get asked: “What does a day in Burundi look like for you?” And it’s difficult to answer because my days include a huge range of activities; but at this stage of life, this is the framework I’m trying to implement. What my work actually entails is beyond the scope of this blog.

I’m sharing this with you in the hope that something might strike you, encourage you, challenge you, or help you. Our lives are all different – we have different balls we’re juggling in the air – and we might be at different life stages in different nations, but, most of us would say we lead stressed, cluttered, busy lives and are struggling to get things right.

Well, this is my attempt with Lizzie to ‘get things right’ at our stage of life – married, with children aged 11, 9 and 8, running a big ministry with huge responsibilities and pressures in a volatile country. We’ve bumbled along at different stages feeling like we’ve been more or less effective, frequently failing, but trying to give it our best shot. Please hear it, no judgment from me! I guess being a disciple takes discipline, and discipling our kids takes even more.

The alarm goes at 6am. On weekdays Lizzie and I alternate doing a 1-mile run 610am-620am with Grace who has the goal, in parallel with her friends in England, to do a run each day. Lizzie and I are aware that these are very special years with the children. We can’t waste this time. We need to be intentional. So 630am-645am over breakfast we read ‘Window on the World’, which is a superb resource that tells of an unreached tribe or nation, and then we pray for it. The kids are fascinated, learning more about history and geography, as well as what God is up to in the world. Every other day, we switch that book with ‘Let’s Just Laugh At That’. It’s a book that highlights the lies we so easily believe (e.g. It’s not fair, I can’t control my anger, I’m not good at anything, etc), and then teaches us what God says about it in the Bible, and how to laugh at that lie with our Laughter Blaster or Giggle Grenade or whatever. None of the kids has ever moaned about these times, rather they love them. Those two books will last us another few weeks. If you have suggestions for other such resources, please do comment below.

Lizzie takes the kids to school at 7am. That’s when I get my guitar, Bible, devotional and notebook, and sit on the floor in the corridor (for the acoustics and coolness) for anything from 20mins to an hour usually. George Muller wrote: “The first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day is to have my soul happy in the Lord.” I need to find shalom, to reach that state in prayer, listening, meditation, worship, before entering a hectic day. That shalom may be challenged within seconds of getting to the office because of some horrific situation that is presented to me that needs addressing, so all the more I desperately guard and crave this time. I have my prayer lists for each day. I have a pen to write whatever comes to me in terms of ideas for sermons or prompts for people I need to get in touch with to encourage, ideas for ministry, etc. We’ve just started a men’s group on Thursdays at 730am so that is the one different day.

A crucial thing for me is to give God my best brain time. I won’t look at emails or social media until after time with the Lord, because then ‘boom!’, my mind is swamped with important stuff (emails) and inanities (social media). I use social media very intentionally for work – it generates significant financial and prayer support – but I can’t kid you or myself, I often get sucked in. God help us! Yes, we are busy, but what kind of business? As John Piper challenges us: “One of the great uses of Twitter/Facebook/Instagram will be to prove on the last day that our prayerlessness was not from lack of time!” I think a lot of us need to address this area of our lives urgently. Feel free to hold me to account!

I have a gloriously short 52-second commute on my motorbike to work! Lizzie says I’m lazy and should walk it, but I say I often have to go on from there to other meetings. I share a pokey office (on purpose as I don’t want to model being the ‘big man’) with two other people. It’s in our conference centre, which is a great networking hub. GLO supports nine organisations as partners, and other groups and initiatives besides, so there’ll be lots of people to meet and plenty of work to get on with.

Kids are back from school after midday so I pop back for lunch at 1230pm. I love the fact that at this stage of life, unless traveling, I usually get to eat three meals a day with family – a privilege that very few others get. I might have a read/snooze for an hour during the hottest part of the day, then back to the office. Hopefully I’ll fit in three gym sessions per week, using that time to listen to a podcast (Flatirons in Colorado is my current favorite, Francis ‘no-diluting-no-compromise’ Chan another).

Supper is at 530pm, and 2-3 times/week we have visitors. Then 630pm-745pm is spent reading with each child individually (for years we did all three of them together but we’ve found recently that the one-on-one time is very special): about 10minutes Bible/notes (some resistance there), and then a book of their choice and currently a chapter from the ‘10 boys/girls who changed the world or made history’ series. After praying them off to bed, we slump down knackered and try not to go to bed by 8pm! The humidity here means we’re always shattered. Social life is very limited so we are rarely out at night (one date night each fortnight), and also security means minimizing trips out in the dark. So we’ll probably watch a DVD series, and then be in bed by 930pm-10pm, at which point we debrief, mind your own business(!), and pray briefly (and it has been known for one of us to fall asleep during the praying itself, such is our tiredness!)

That’s it. Your context will be very different, as I said. There’s no right or wrong way in this. But if you aspire to being a disciple, it will take rigorous discipline. And Jesus didn’t make disciples as an end in themselves, but they were all to disciple others. For those of us who are parents, that starts with our kids. But for all of us, He’s most assuredly got others He wants us to invest in. Who might that be? What does it (or will it) look like? What needs changing/tweaking/initiating? God give us all the grace we need.

So, God bless you on your journey with Jesus with others in tow! God help us all to be disciplined discipling disciples!

I’m interested in your thoughts on this, so do comment and share this with others. It’s so important.

This article recently appeared here for the Evangelical Alliance.

Once I was preaching near the Congolese border. My sermon text was Matthew 25 – the parable of the ten maidservants. Those ten all had a role to play at the wedding, but five of them didn’t have enough oil in their lamps. It’s a straightforward story, and it doesn’t need much explaining. My three points were simply, i) Jesus is coming, ii) nobody knows when, iii) but are you ready? Some responded to my appeal at the end, others didn’t. In any case, two days later I was driving towards their village on my motorbike only to be turned back by a group of soldiers, as killing was taking place up ahead in a rebel attack. It struck me as never before just how urgent a message we have been entrusted with. How many of those who died had accepted or declined the invitation just 48 hours earlier? God knows. For each of those people unfortunate enough to be caught in the crossfire, their time to meet Jesus had indeed come; they hadn’t known when; but the most important issue remained the same – were they ready?

I’ve spent 18 years now living in Burundi. In the early years it was the most dangerous country in the world, and I totally expected to die. I’d counted the cost. I knew Jesus was coming, I knew I was ready, and I wanted to give my all to helping others get ready. There is simply nothing more important to do with our lives.

Yet you’ll only agree with me on that and grasp the urgency of the situation if you believe what the Bible says regarding the eternal destinies of both those who accept and reject Christ’s offer of salvation. Jesus said that “whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him” (John 3:36). In 2 Thessalonians 1:8–9, Paul wrote, “He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power.” Space precludes sharing more verses, but suffice to say there are plenty of them.

The advantage I had was that I was living in a literal warzone. People living in times of peace easily miss the reality that there is a spiritual battle going on. As John Piper explains, “Most people show by their priorities and casual approaches to spiritual things that they believe we’re in peace, not in wartime… In wartime we’re on the alert. We’re armed. We’re vigilant. In wartime we spend money differently, because there are more strategic ways to maximize our resources. The war effort touches everybody. We all cut back. The luxury liner becomes a troop carrier… Who considers that the casualties of this war don’t merely lose an arm or an eye or an earthly life, but lose everything, even their own soul, and enter a hell of everlasting torment?”

There’s a pithy parable about the devil’s training academy for his demonic minions. On the day of the graduation ceremony, he was mingling with the new graduates and questioning them about what they had learnt. He approached one group of three demons and engaged them in conversation. He asked them, “Now that you’re ready to start your mission of leading as many earthlings away from the path of God and into my clutches, what strategy will you use?”

The first demon replied, “Sir, I’ll tell them there’s no God.”

“Rubbish! That won’t work. Creation’s so beautiful that it points to the fact that surely there is a Creator. You won’t dupe many with that one.”

The second one replied, “Sir, I’ll tell them that there’s no judgement.”

“No chance! Come on, we all know that those pathetic earthlings have been endowed with a conscience so that they inherently have a conception of right and wrong. Most know and recognize a coming judgement. That’s not going to work.”

Finally, the third demon replied, “I’ll tell them that yes, there is a God, and yes, there is a judgement, but also that there’s still plenty of time.”

“Excellent! You’ve studied well. Many will be suckers for that lie. Get to it!”

A number of years ago, I came across this obituary: “Died, Salvador Sanchez, 23, World Boxing Council featherweight champion and one of the sport’s best fighters; of injuries after his Porsche 928 collided with two trucks, just north of Queretaro, Mexico. A school dropout at 16, Sanchez explained, ‘I found out that I liked hitting people, and I didn’t like school so I started boxing.’ A peppery tactician, he wore opponents down for late-round knockouts. His record: 43-1-1. ‘I’d like to step down undefeated,’ he said last month. ‘I’m only 23 and I have all the time in the world.’” Like many young people, Sanchez considered himself practically immortal. What a mistake!

My grandfather was a deeply committed, passionate follower of Jesus. He spent 40 years in Africa, experiencing the East African revival first hand as he built the best school of its time in Rwanda, founded the national Scripture Union movement, and translated the Bible into the local language. At his funeral, the speaker said of him, “Peter Guillebaud worked as if he would live forever, and he lived as if he would die tomorrow.” My grandfather knew the stakes were high, and he wanted to do all in his power to rescue as many people as possible. His belief in the reality hell underpinned so much of what he sought to accomplish. And in turn for each one of us, the awareness of the reality of hell will deepen our sense of gratitude to God for sending Jesus to die in our place; it will increase our compassion for the lost; it will heighten our urgency in communicating the gospel; it will sharpen our intercession; it will stir up a righteous hatred of sin; it will spur us on in prioritizing mission and evangelism.