07 Feb Looking to Find Yourself?

By Phil Waldron, CEO

Recently, I was encouraged by a friend to go back and listen to C.S. Lewis’ book, Mere Christianity, on audio, read by Geoffery Howard. He said, “Besides the Bible, this book has been the most influential book that I have ever read.” He also said that during his travels he had listened to it some 35 or 40 times.

Mr. Howard has a pronounced British accent that helps one imagine that it might be the author himself that is reading to you. It certainly is thought provoking. One of the most often quoted lines is; “Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.”

While not inspired like Scripture, Mr. Lewis has an inspiring way of saying things that resonate with your soul. He was very clever in presenting word pictures that really make truths of Scripture come alive. The one quote cited above, once I heard it, immediately reminded me of our Lord’s very own words found in Matthew 10:39, “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” Or perhaps another version of this same truth that Jesus spoke as we find in Matthew 16:25, “For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.”

Lewis really puts a practical edge on the surgeon’s scalpel that Jesus “made” with his declaration of this fact. Haven’t we all experienced the emptiness and futility of seeking recognition, praise, wealth, power, etc.?

Seeking Christ, simply for having him in our lives as Savior, Lord, and friend, is the ultimate pursuit that will never fail to deliver a meaningful and rich life. It’s because He is the source of light and life. Any other basis on which we invest our time, energy and life is “sinking sand.” I love the words of the hymn that we sang when I was a child, “On Christ, the Solid Rock, I stand; All other ground is sinking sand, All other ground is sinking sand. When darkness veils His lovely face, I rest on His unchanging grace; In every high and stormy gale, My anchor holds within the Veil.”

Our work here in the Western Honduras is all about helping people know the solid Rock upon which they can stand when the storms of life assail them. It is an integrated approach that begins with the fundamental teachings of knowing Jesus for who he is and how to respond to his invitation to become his disciple. We minister to and with a demographic that is populated by people who will never have all the creature comforts that one often expects as a normal part of life while living in the United States. Here in Honduras a lack of access to economic opportunity creates a life that is much different than one these same people could have if they go to the States illegally. We have been here fifteen years come June 5th of this year. And we have only just now begun to see the first fruits of many, many years of “ploughing, planting and watering.” When we look forward to what we believe God is doing, we are excited and filled with joy because of all that He has done in these past years. He has produced a crop of young leaders, who are exceptional people, to lead both the local church and our MUR ministry programs. Please keep us in your prayers.