What are some of your favorite adages about faith, love, and life? Here are a few that come to my mind: “All you need is love.” “Throw kindness around like confetti.” “Joy is portable; bring it with you.” “Speak life.” “Keep the faith.”
Well, it might surprise you to hear that I disagree with that last one, “Keep the faith”. In fact, I suggest the exact opposite – that we don’t keep the faith. Now, before you’re tempted to label me a heretic, I’ll share a story:
There was a missionary to Africa who brought the Gospel to a group of villagers. Among the verses he shared with them was John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” One elderly woman, upon hearing the Good News, immediately received Christ into her heart. She was blind, and as a result, she could not read or write. Nevertheless, she asked the missionary if he would give her a Bible with John 3:16 underlined in red. The missionary was puzzled as to how the old woman was planning to use the Bible since she couldn’t see, but he obliged her request.
The next day, the missionary saw the woman leave her home with her new Bible in hand. He decided to follow her. He watched as she made her way to the local school, feeling her way to the front door. There, she waited. When school was dismissed and the children started to pour through the doors, the woman flagged one of them down and asked him to find the verse marked in red inside her Bible and read it out loud to her. When the boy finished reading, she asked him if he knew what it meant. He shook his head, and the missionary watched as she proceeded to tell him about Christ.
So for several days in a row, the missionary followed the old woman to the school and watched her repeat the same process. Eventually he left the country, but years later in his retirement, he returned to the village for a visit and met with the local pastor. As they were swapping stories, the missionary proceeded to tell the pastor about the old woman he remembered from his time in the mission field, and how she would wait every day until school ended, pull aside a different child to read John 3:16, and then tell him or her about the love of God.
The pastor’s eyes widened slowly in recognition. “I was one of the children who she pulled aside. It’s thanks to her that I accepted Jesus into my heart. And it’s thanks to her that I am a pastor today.” He went on to tell the missionary that because of the old woman’s faithfulness, dozens of children gave their lives to Christ, and 24 of them went on to work in ministry and dedicate their lives to expanding God’s Kingdom.
Dozens of lives changed…all because of one elderly woman who, despite being blind and unable to read the words of Scripture on paper, refused to keep her newfound faith to herself.
You see, when it comes to our faith, keeping it is the exact opposite of what we’ve been called to do. The Great Commission that Jesus left with His disciples before He ascended back to heaven addressed exactly that. He instructed them, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19). That same instruction holds true for us as His followers today.
So I’d like to challenge you to re-write that old adage in your own life. Don’t keep the faith – instead, do all that you can to give it away. Think about who in your own life needs to hear the saving message of the Gospel. If a blind woman in a rural village in Africa could heed the call of the Great Commission, what excuse do you and I have NOT to obey it?
