This evening I cried while I was cooking dinner. Now depending on how well you know me you are speculating and coming to conclusions about why and judging whether or not I should be crying whilst preparing supper. Maybe it would help if I told you why I cried. I made French onion soup and had to chop a lot of onions. Sniff. Sniff.
I have heard the phrase "for all the right reasons" in reference to contestants on the Bachelorette as well as the aid workers who were killed this week in northern Afghanistan. In my brain this also linked to the Francis Schaeffer book I'm reading and onion soup. Bear with me here.
First the Bachelorette; actually I have never seen this show but I love to read blogs about it. Young attractive people are often accusing other attractive young people of being there "for the wrong reasons". It gives one pause. In the moral universe that is reality TV how does one discern "right and wrong". Discuss amongst yourselves.
In circumstances on the opposite side of the world geographically and morally, were the tragic deaths in Afghanistan. Some people seek to judge whether the expat workers were in the country for the right reasons. Who is qualified to make this judgment? These precious saints did not seek their own glory, gave up family, comforts of all kinds, financial gain and security in order to serve others, the poorest of the poor, the most desperately needy.
A few years ago I was in a Central Asian country helping out with a crisis management training amongst expat aid workers. These men and women each had a conviction that God had called them to this far corner of the world to serve the people there. Each had also come to grips personally with the possibility of facing death even though they served "for all the right reasons". They sought to please God; not man.
Which brings me to my point (finally, I think). Only in a universe where a good God has made Himself known through a revelation to man created in His image can we have any hope of knowing the difference between right reasons and wrong reasons. Our brothers and sisters who laid down their lives in a foreign land were most assuredly there for the right reasons. And I pray that others will rise up to shine as light in the darkness and spread the love God.
