Raising World Changers In A Changing World By Kristen WelchSample

Day Three

Hard Questions

Scripture: Luke 12:48

The book Revolution in World Mission by K. P. Yohannan, founder of Gospel for Asia, revolutionized my life and the way I parent. He urged every North American Christian to ask themselves two questions:

1. Why do you think God has allowed you to be born in North America . . . and to be blessed with such material and spiritual abundance? 

2. In light of the superabundance you enjoy, what do you think is your minimal responsibility to the untold millions of lost and suffering in the world?

These are the questions that have shaped my home and turned my family right side up. I want to spend my life answering them. I want my children to answer them with how they choose to live and give. 

Where you live is not an accident. God has a purpose for placing you here and not somewhere else. What do you think that purpose is? 

I don’t think it’s a mathematical mistake that one-third of the world is rich enough to ease the burden of the other two-thirds, who live on less than one dollar per day. Nor is it a curious coincidence that we are already sitting on the answer: we are supposed to help each other. It’s something we teach our children from the cradle. It’s called sharing. We have more than enough, and we have enough to share. It sounds like a match made in heaven. Maybe it was God’s plan all along for us to love others and, instead of accumulating more stuff, to give some of what we have away. 

America is a land of opportunity. It’s a place where we can achieve all we want and more. But just because we can get more, should we? It’s a hard question only we can answer. This isn’t about the size of a home or a car or a bank account. It’s not about guilt or lifestyle—it’s about the size of our hearts. 

I know people who have much and give much. I know people who have almost nothing and give even more. 

I believe when God asks us what we did with our talents, our resources, our land-of-the-free, home-of-the-brave opportunities, we will be accountable for our answers. We may give already. But we have been given so much more.

Spend some time discussing or writing out answers to the two questions above.