Jeff Hill is with IBM. But like many people nowadays he works from home. Working from home, he says he needs a professionalsounding voicemail greeting so everyone will know he's hard at work.
While he was recording a new message one morning, Jeff's wife was across the hall from his office, folding clothes with their sixyearold daughter, who had just emerged from the shower. Jeff's professional message ended up sounding like this:
Male voice: "Hi, this is Jeff Hill with IBM."
Female voice: "Look at you! You have no clothes on!"
Male voice: "I'm not available right now . . ." (1)
Well, maybe Jeff's message didn't convey what he meant to convey, but it brings us to our question for the day: ARE YOU AVAILABLE? This is where the rubber meets the road in Christian discipleship. Are you available?
Writer Frederick Buechner tells about his wife's greatgrandfather, a man named George Shinn. Shinn was a pastor back in 1880. He was summoned one midnight to the bedside of an old woman who lived by herself. She had little money and few friends, and she was dying. She told Shinn that she wanted another woman to come stay with her for such time as she might have left, so Shinn and the old woman's doctor struck out in the darkness to try to dig one up for her. It sounds like a parable the way it is told. They knocked at doors and threw pebbles at second story windows. One woman said she couldn't come because she had children. Another said she simply wouldn't know what to do, what to be, in a crisis like that. Another was suspicious of two men prowling around at that hour of night and wouldn't even talk to them. But finally, as the memoir of Dr. Shinn puts it in the prose of another age, "They rapped at the humble door of an Irish woman, the mother of a brood of children. She put her head out of the window. ˜Who's there?' she said. ˜And what can you want at this time of night?' They tell her the situation, her warm, Irish heart cannot resist. ˜Will you come?' ˜Sure and I'll come, and I'll do the best I can.' And she did come," the account ends. "She did the best she could." (2) This woman was willing. She was available. Is there a warmer word in our language? Available. It means, I'm here when you call. I'm ready, willing, able.
Great crowds were following Jesus. He turned around and said to them: "Anyone who wants to be my follower must love me far more than he does his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, or sisters yes, more than his own life otherwise he cannot be my disciple."
Jesus was asking, "Are you available?" Can I count on you? Are you ready to do your part? There are plenty of people who are curious, some who are genuinely interested, but only a few who will make themselves available. Are you among that number? Can he count on you? Are you available?
ARE YOU AVAILABLE TO WALK IN THE STEPS OF THE MASTER? That is the first question we must ask ourselves. Christ does not ask us to do anything he has not done himself. Are we ready to walk where he has walked?
When Jesus said that we must love him more than we love our family and friends, we remember that time when Jesus' family came to take him home. They were concerned for his wellbeing. But Jesus asked, "Who is my mother and who are my brothers?" Then he answered his own question: He pointed to his disciples. "Look!" he said, "these are my mother and brothers." Then he added, "Anyone who obeys my Father in heaven is my brother, sister and mother!" (Matthew 12: 4850 The Living Bible)
Did Jesus not care about his mother and brothers? Yes, he cared, but he could not let his love for them keep him from his mission. Do you not think that he was tempted as the shadows of the cross grew darker about him to leave it all and go back to the security of hearth and home in Nazareth? Of course he was. But he had a higher calling and he could not let his love for his immediate family stand in the way. That is a choice that courageous people sometimes have to make.
Each summer in Cherokee, N.C. UNTO THESE HILLS, America's most popular outdoor drama tells the thrilling story of Tsali, a Cherokee Indian brave. In 1838, 17,000 Cherokee Indians were forced by General Winfield Scott to journey en masse in awful conditions from western North Carolina to Oklahoma. More than 4,000 perished on that terrible trail of tears. Some 1,000 Indians, however, had hidden in the Great Smoky mountains. One of these was Tsali.
Tsali's wife had been murdered by a drunken United States soldier, who, in turn was killed by Tsali and his kinsmen. Consequently, Tsali escaped into the depths of America's largest virgin forest. Eventually a trusted friend of Tsali's transmitted Scott's compromise proposal: If Tsali and his kin would surrender to be shot, the remainder of the tribe could stay in the beautiful land of their birth.
After days of anguish, Tsali, with his sons and brotherinlaw walked unescorted into a nearby town to face certain death. What brought him? White soldiers never could have found him in his cave near Clingman's Dome in the Smokies. Despite a burning desire to live, love for his people brought him to die. At the last moment, his youngest son was saved from the firing squad by the tears of a woman missionary. No such luck for Tsali. The rifles rang out and three men died, but a thousand Cherokees were free to remain in the Great Smoky mountains. Tsali was available for his people. (3)
"Greater love hath no man than this," says John's Gospel, "that a man lay down his life for his friends" (15:13). Sometimes we are compelled by a greater love than that for our mothers and brothers and spouses. In the same way that Tsali gave up his life for his people, Christ was available for you and me. He asks us to do no more than he has already done. Are you available to walk in his footsteps?
ARE YOU AVAILABLE TO SUFFER THE POSSIBLE CONSEQUENCES OF DISCIPLESHIP? Jesus said, "And no one can be my disciple who does not carry his own cross and follow me."
We are not a people generally who are willing to make sacrifices. I know there are exceptions, but as a whole we have become a people in love with comfort. We drive comfortable automobiles and we live in comfortable houses and we even belong to comfortable churches. Doesn't it concern you at times that perhaps we have chosen the wide gate and not the narrow one, the easy road and not the road that leads to life?
Chiune Sugihara was born on a day of new beginnings January 1, 1900. As a boy, he cherished the dream of becoming the Japanese ambassador to Russia. By the 1930s, he was the ambassador to Lithuania, just a step away from Russia.
One morning, a huge throng of people gathered outside his home. They were Jews who had made their way across treacherous terrain from Poland, desperately seeking his help. They wanted Japanese visas, which would enable them to flee Eastern Europe and the Gestapo.
Three times Sugihara wired Tokyo for permission to provide the visas; three times he was rejected. He had to choose between the fulfillment of his dream as an ambassador and people's lives. He chose the latter. He dared to disobey orders. For twentyeight days he wrote visas by hand, barely sleeping or eating. Recalled to Berlin, he was still writing visas and shoving them through the train windows into the hands of the refugees who ran alongside. Ultimately he saved six thousand lives.
Sugihara was not only a courageous Japanese; he was also a committed Christian. He spent his remaining days in Japan, humbly selling lightbulbs. When his story was finally told, his son was asked, "How did your father feel about his choice?" The young man replied, "My father's life was fulfilled. When God needed him to do the right thing, he was available to do it." (4)
There is that word again: Available. It takes courage to be available. It takes compassion. It takes commitment. Are you willing to walk in Christ's steps? Are you willing to suffer the possible consequences? And one thing more: ARE YOU AVAILABLE TO TELL THE STORY?
Why is it that we, as committed Christians, find it so hard to tell others about our Savior? Are we too scared to "let our light shine before men?" Are we too sophisticated to "go, and make disciples of all nations?" Or is it that we don't really believe in the power of God to change people's lives? Whatever the reasons, few Christians are willing and able to share their faith with others.
Milton Cunningham, a missionary, shares a time when he was convicted of his own failure to share the Good News.
He had just settled in for his flight from Atlanta to Dallas. Next to him was a young girl with Down's Syndrome. She turned to Milton and, in all her innocence, asked, "Mister, did you brush your teeth this morning?"
A little awkwardly, Milton answered, "Well, yes, I brushed my teeth this morning."
"Good," the girl responded, " ˜cause that's what you're supposed to do."
Her next question was, "Mister, do you smoke?"
This one was a little easier on Milton. When he said no, the little girl answered with approval, "Good, ˜cause smoking will make you die."
The third question was even easier to answer. The young girl asked, "Mister, do you love Jesus?"
Milton answered with confidence, "Well, yes, I do love Jesus."
"Good, ˜cause we're all supposed to love Jesus," she replied.
Just then, another man settled into the seat beside Milton. He was intent on reading a magazine. Immediately, the girl urged Milton to ask the new fellow if he had brushed his teeth that morning. Milton wasn't about to disturb the stranger, but the girl wouldn't leave him alone. Finally, he gave in. He said, "Mister, I don't mean to bother you, but my friend here wants me to ask you if you brushed your teeth this morning." When the man noticed the girl, he realized that her question was innocent enough, and he answered that yes, he had brushed his teeth that morning.
With a sinking feeling, Milton realized where this was going. Next, the girl urged him to ask the stranger if he smoked. Milton and the man went through the second question. And sure enough, the girl wanted Milton to ask the third question: did this man love Jesus? Milton protested that the question was too personal, that he just wouldn't be comfortable asking it. Remember, Milton Cunningham is a missionary. But something in him made him uncomfortable about sharing the Good News with his fellow passenger. But the young girl persisted, and so Milton said, "Now she wants to know if you love Jesus."
At this, the man's face darkened. He began to talk about his desire to know God. He was at a point in his life when he was searching for God, for meaning, for purpose in life. But he didn't know where to turn. So Milton Cunningham explained to the man how to have a relationship with God, and how to find salvation through Jesus. He was able to witness to a person in deep need, a person who was in need of God. And it all started with a simple question, asked by a child with simple, but sincere motives. (5)
It is amazing what God can do with anyone who is simply available available to walk in Christ's footsteps available to take a courageous stand when necessary available to share their faith when the opportunity arises. It's such a simple thing really. It is to say when God calls, "This is Jeff Smith or Sally Jones or Willy Davis or whatever your name might be. I'm available."
1. Jeff Hill, quoted by Sue Shellenbarger in The Wall Street Journal.
2. Frederick Buechner, The Clown in The Belfry (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1992), pp. 126-127.
3. Robert Harris, The Circuit Rider newsletter.
4. Stephen Arterburn, The Power Book (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1996)
5. Stan Toler, God Has Never Failed Me, But He's Sure Scared Me To Death A Few Times (Tulsa, Oklahoma: Honor Books, 1995), 34-36.