Treasures in Jars of Clay

When people come to Thailand, or go on any missions trip for that matter, they often leave with a sense of how wealthy they are in comparison to those in other parts of the world. It’s hard not to compare. We visit remote villages in beautiful areas, but the day to day living conditions are worlds away from what we have back home. Escape from the heat equates to shade and maybe a fan. Bathrooms are not equipped with flush toilets or even with toilets you sit on. Showers are a luxury and often bathing means pouring water from a cistern over yourself. Insects are everywhere and the food, while good, is pretty much the same at every meal.

The team that just left was from Point Loma Nazarene University in Southern California. They came to Thailand to offer health education and basic health checks to marginalized people groups (immigrants and refugees) and people in remote areas (hill tribe people). Thailand actually has great health care. People from all over the world come to Bangkok for both elective and non-elective medical procedures.

However, not everyone has access to the healthcare they need. Some live too far to go in to the doctor for every little concern and so they just don’t go. Many just don’t have the money to get regular check-ups. This team took blood pressures and checked blood sugar. They talked to the people about taking care of their bodies with good nutrition, hydration, and proper rest. They emphasized dental care. We had a nurse practitioner on hand to talk to patients about what was bothering them and to give sound advice. The team also prayed for each person who came in.

On the last day, we talked with the team and told them how much of a blessing they had been. We invited them to come back and serve and encouraged them to serve right where God had them, right now. We also talked about what they had experienced and seen.

They acknowledged that they feel so wealthy in comparison to what they had just seen, and they are. It’s true; Americans have a lot. But our true wealth is not related to our standard of living; the true disparity lies not in our possessions or even in our education. Our true wealth, our real treasure is Jesus Christ.

This may sound like a trite soundbite in Christian vernacular, but in our context it is a vital truth that must be acknowledged every day. We have the knowledge that the God who created he universe loved us enough to die for us. That He paid for our sins, not because we were sorry or had done anything or showed ourselves worthy of being saved, but because He loves us. Because we are His.

We have the knowledge that we do not have to earn our salvation and we don’t have to work to be good enough or do enough good things to keep our salvation. We know that we need only remain in Christ and in His love.

We know that God takes what has been distorted, broken, torn apart, desecrated, and ruined in us and remakes, repairs and restores us. He recreates us in His image; He makes us holy. We have a treasure that can never be taken from us, never be destroyed.

We have absolute assurance, true hope of heaven. Our debt, our ransom has been paid and by believing in and trusting in Jesus Christ, we are in. We have been transferred from the kingdom of darkness to one of light. It has already been done and we can live in that freedom, in that knowledge. We can live as holy people. We belong. In Christ the answer to every promise God ever made is “Yes!”

The people of Thailand do not have this knowledge. They live in fear of evil spirits and of karma. They work to be good enough to hopefully not have a next life that is worse than this one, to hopefully move up. They strive to appease any evil spirit that might harm them and to earn merit and make ransom for their sins. They have no knowledge of a God who created them, knows them, and loves them. They have no assurances of eternity. They are trapped in a system of checks and balances, a system that says “maybe.”

We can’t fix poverty. Redistribution of wealth has proven ineffective time and again. We can care for people and be generous and give what we have, but it won’t fix the true poverty; we can offer medicine but it won’t touch the real illness; we can feed the hungry, but it won’t satiate the root hunger in the world.

However, we do have a treasure that can be shared, one that truly meets needs and yet is never depleted. When we share Jesus, it doesn’t reduce our treasure, in fact it increases it. The more we give this away, the more we have. And this treasure actually leaves the recipients with exactly the same wealth we have. As soon as someone receives the good news that Jesus died to pay for their sins and believes the Word of God, trusting in God alone for their salvation, they become citizens of the Kingdom of God. Each child of God is granted unlimited access to a relationship with the Creator of the Universe, forgiveness of sins, freedom from and victory over sin, the ability to live in love and holiness, and we have wisdom and guidance through the Holy Spirit who is our deposit guaranteeing our future with God in Christ Jesus.

How is then that we manage to keep this treasure to ourselves? How do our friends and neighbors not know? We love being Work & Witness Coordinators. The “work” is fun and feels rewarding, but it’s the “witness”, the giving away of your most precious treasure, the hope you have in Christ is the gift that will really change the world.