Seeing Humanity Through The Lens Of God's Love

From the series “How Foreign Missions Changed Me”

I cut my evangelistic teeth in the parks and streets of Denver and Colorado Springs. You have to be willing to accept rejection to share Jesus with people. In Denver and Colorado Springs, the rate of rejection was probably 90%. People weren’t always mean about it, because some have a gift of rejecting you and your ideas in the kindest way. Thank God for those! Some are mean, but most just ignore you. Giving out tracts in these places resulted in about 50% of them being thrown on the ground and many others ended up in a garbage can.

I became reluctant to share the gospel near my home because of these experiences. I think my heart hardened toward Americans, in general, due to the rejection.

Americans are affluent. Even those in poverty in the US are affluent compared to most of the rest of the world.

Affluence is a hindrance to the gospel. I hate to admit it, because I like affluence for myself, but it’s so true. Affluence leads to people trusting in themselves, their own abilities, their jobs, their money. They don’t see a need for God. It takes sometimes something tragic to make them see that money can’t give you peace, can’t give you joy. Money can’t give you love, although so many try persistently to buy it.

No matter where a person lives, how much they have or don’t have, what they believe, the color of their skin, or what language they speak, God sees all humanity the same in some respects. The people of these third world countries share some of the same issues with us Americans. Issues like poverty, ignorance of God’s grace, and a distorted view of Jesus’s sacrifice and its implications for us are prevalent there as well as here.

For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son so that anyone who believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16 TLB

There are some basic needs of humanity that are universal. It doesn’t matter if you live in The Hamptons, or in the slums of Mumbai, we all have the same basic needs.

Most people are familiar with Maslow’s Hierachy of Needs.

You cannot build a pyramid from the top, down. In the same way, these needs must be met from the bottom, up. You must have your physiological needs met before you can be concerned with meeting your need for a sense of accomplishment. For example, trying to instill a starving man with self-confidence would certainly be a fruitless effort. Fill his belly with food, make him safe and secure, then he can consider developing relationships, and eventually self-confidence.

Every person on earth has these needs; they’re not just desires. When one of them is lacking, there’s a void and a persistent hunger for that need to be met. It causes human pain, whether physical, psychological, or spiritual, when one of these needs is not met.

Most people in the US have the needs of the bottom two levels met. We have food, shelter, and water. Most of us also have a job, family, and some amount of physical property.

However, the needs for loving and belonging are not being met the same way now as they were a generation ago; at least not in the United States. The breakdown of the American family has been happening for decades, and is, in part, responsible for the widespread social isolation that we see today.

The information age has also brought with it some negative consequences. People can pay their bills, buy their groceries, order their medicine, work, date, and do a job interview, all from the comfort and isolation of their own home.

This has contributed to the epidemic of social ineptitude, alienation, loneliness, and lack of intimacy in the US and in other 1st world nations.

While the people of third world nations suffer from greater rates of poverty, Americans often lack the stability that a strong family unit and sense of community provides, which is often available for families in these third world nations.

I recently returned to the US after 9 days in the Dominican Republic. I found that I was suddenly seeing Americans through the eyes of God’s love. In the past, I’d been very disappointed with Americans’ self-reliance and lack of desire for God. Since much of the US, especially in the South, has a church on every corner, I saw some fundamental flaws in American Christians (myself included) as being at the core of what was wrong with America. If we were truly being salt and light, I reasoned that we’d not have the widespread hatred and confusion that is dividing our nation.

Our needs as Americans may be a different mix than those in 3rd world countries, but they are real needs, nonetheless. Americans are hurting. Sadly, most don’t have a clue how to get their needs met. There’s a hole in their hearts that they’re trying to fill with all sorts of things; drugs, immoral relationships, alcohol, over-achieving, over-education, pornography. These pursuits are all ways to achieve a “high” that will never provide long term fulfillment.

Jesus meets every need of humanity

Jesus is the answer. He’s the only One who can satisfy the needs of humanity. He’s the only One who can take His promises from something written on the pages of the Bible, and bring them into the natural realm. This is why we desperately need evangelism in the US.

Some people look like they have it all together; but the truth is, if they don’t know their Creator, they do not know themselves.

You open Your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing.

Psalm 145:16 HCSB

God is the provider for every human being and every living thing on this earth. Knowing God allows a person to know where their provision comes from. This will lead to their most basic needs being met.

Knowing God satisfies our need to be loved. When we become born again, we instantly belong! We belong to a family, and are an integral part of an amazing and eternal Kingdom!

Knowing God, we find out who we are. We find our purpose. We were created to love and to be loved by our Creator. We are created to know Him and to make Him known. We can have confidence, self-respect, and know our own uniqueness, when we know God and His Word.

Knowing God through His Word answers all the questions humanity has regarding our common needs. This knowledge empowers us to accomplish great things!

The US is a post-Christian nation. Foreign missions helped me to recognize this. Every person I cross paths with in the grocery store is someone God loves. They are someone who desperately needs the provision, stability, security, love, belonging, confidence, assurance and purpose that only God can give.