People Are The Goal
by Nicole Hayes, CMDA Washington, DC Area Director
No doubt, the days are evil and increasingly so. As the culture presses in with its demonic and immoral agenda, I pray as Believers we guard against fear, that can cause division, fearing that any ground gained will be lost while in our earthly home—a “home” that is fallen and perishing.
As I shared in the book The Right to Believe: The Struggle for Religious Freedom in America (June 2020) a few years ago I was introduced to the term “anti-fragility”—a term credited to Nassim Nicholas Taleb from his book Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder (Incerto, 2014). “Anti-fragility” is something that grows or expands when it is traumatized. It grows, stronger, bigger under pressure, under duress—like ideas, networks, and movements. We are more than conquerors in Jesus Christ. The more we are pressed, the more we grow.
To be poured out for His sake will cost us. God is looking for men and women who are willing to suffer for Him that the gospel might go forth. Men and women of God who are willing to be misunderstood and persecuted by the world for His sake.
As Ambassadors of Christ, we are to daily live out the gospel with love and truth, to speak light and life with compassion and conviction, desiring justice and moral order. I listened to this September 10th CMDA Matters podcast hosted by CMDA CEO Mike Chupp, MD, as he interviewed Darrell Bock, MD on cultural intelligence. A great and timely discussion given our current politically polarized climate. Dr. Bock said, “We get it twisted by trying to take over the culture but that is not our call. Our call is to invite people into the sacred space of God's Kingdom where they can get the equipping to live godly lives. People are not the enemy. They are the goal.”
We are pilgrims in this foreign land seated in heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6). Is our pursuit for a more perfect union with this world—or are we pursuing the harvest to be reconciled to God to live in the new world? In all that is happening, do we believe that God is at work and has equipped us to operate effectively in our respective callings and spaces even if at times it seems we’re not getting through? Will we trust Him at all times? In this ministry and in my public policy work for CMDA, I may not see all of the incremental steps God is working to bring about victory. The same applies to your work and ministry. God is working. We need only trust Him and not fear.
People are the goal. Let not the fears and frustrations of this fallen world take us out of godly character. Let not our living, our labor, our serving or speaking be in vain because it lacks love. May others be encouraged by our godly love for one another.
