Go Beyond

I am en route to Grand Rapids via Chicago as I write this post at thirty-seven thousand feet. My flight was delayed a bit because of the weather. Chicago was covered with snow — a beautiful thing to behold unless you are trying to get from Point A to Point B without having to spend extra hours at an airport. While our plane was being de-iced, I pulled a copy of Hemispheres, the United Airlines magazine, from the seat pocket in front of me and started mindlessly leafing through the pages. When I turned to page 11, I paused and I smiled. It seems that a previous passenger, a little girl named Sophia, used this page to practice writing the letters of the “alfabet” with an aqua-colored marker. And then on the next page, she wrote a sweet love note to her grandmother — “Grandma I love you so much because your leting me sleep with you.”

Apparently, Sophia was traveling with her grandmother and was quite excited about the opportunity to spend some time with her. I understand how Sophia feels because some of my very best childhood memories are about time spent with my grandparents. I could not help but wonder about this sweet little girl who sat in seat 15C next to her grandmother and practiced writing the alphabet on the glossy pages of an airline magazine. I am thankful that Sophia turned the page in the magazine and used the letters of the alphabet to express her affection for her grandmother. Our words have the power to bless or to curse others. Sophia chose to use her words to bless her grandmother. When she had finished writing her note she signed it “love Sophia” and then put the magazine back in the seat pocket. Sophia never realized that I would stumble across her sweet message on a cold, snowy day while far from home and be encouraged by her words.

I like surprises like the one I found in the Hemispheres magazine. And, I am thankful that I was assigned seat 15C — the seat previously assigned to Sophia, the little girl who unwittingly made me smile. It’s easy to go through life with little thought or regard for the people who will come after us and sit in the places we have previously occupied. If more of us practiced the alphabet like Sophia and then took the time to write love notes or thank you notes or words of encouragement to others, we might bless others in ways we never imagined. What messages will you leave for those who come after you? Let’s follow Sophia’s example and leave a cache of love notes tucked away in places that God can use to encourage those who will one day walk where we have walked. Thanks, Sophia — wherever you are. I hope you have a great time with your grandmother!

Since I started blogging in September 2008, I have posted 442 blog entries, including this one. Almost daily, I look at the statistical info on my blog to get a sense of what guests are reading and to see who referred them to my site. I also look at the stats of the most-read blog entries every week — thus, the subject for today’s post.

In July 2009 I posted an entry on William Borden, the heir to the famous Borden dairy estate. Borden renounced career paths that would have ensured him a comfortable life and chose instead to serve as a missionary to a Muslim people group in China. While en route to China he contracted spinal meningitis and died at the age of twenty-five. Today, ninety-eight years after his death, William Borden is one of the names most often searched for on the internet. And, every week, my blog entry on Borden is one of most-read posts on my site.

Borden’s decision to become a missionary ran contrary to what his family and friends expected him to do with his life. One friend expressed amazement at the decision and commented that Borden was throwing his life away by becoming a missionary. The world has never understood the value of a life wasted for God and for His purposes.

Missionary Jim Elliot and four of his friends were martyred in Ecuador in 1956. Many considered their deaths to be a tragic waste. Elliot would disagree. He once wrote, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”

Early in 1999, Graham Staines, an independent Baptist missionary from Australia, and his two young sons were murdered by Hindu extremists in Orissa, India. What the world considers a waste is seen as otherwise in heaven. The Psalmist (116:15) declared, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.”

The world has always failed to grasp the significance of waste — of giving all to Jesus.

The Gospel of Mark records the story of a woman who had an expensive jar of perfume. When Jesus was dining at the home of a man named Simon the Leper in Bethany, the woman approached Jesus and did the unexpected — “She broke the jar and poured the perfume on His head” (Mark 14:3).

Her shocking act of devotion provoked criticism from some in the room who asked, “Why has this fragrant oil been wasted?” (Mark 14:4). The woman’s critics argued that the perfume might have been sold and the proceeds given to the poor. Jesus, however, put everything into proper perspective. “Leave her alone,” Jesus said. “Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me” (Mark 14:6).

People like William Borden and Jim Elliot and Graham Staines understood what it meant to do something beautiful and noble for Jesus. The sweet fragrance of their lives is as strong today as it was on the day they broke their jars of perfume and did something beautiful for Jesus. Their lives challenge us to come to terms with the unused perfume that we selfishly cling to and refuse to pour out.

There is nothing beautiful about unused perfume. When you think about it, the only perfume that is truly wasted is that which remains in the jar. Every day we have opportunities to do something beautiful and noble for Jesus. Be willing to break your jar of perfume and release the sweet fragrance of waste for the One who has given us everything.

I enjoy writing. Someone once asked me which I would choose if given the option to write or to speak as a means of communication. I replied that I would rather write than speak. Long before I entered the world of blogging I kept journals. On occasion I will pick up one of my fifty-plus journals and revisit a day in my past. The great thing about keeping a journal is that it forced me to write about the ordinary things in my life as well as the not-so-ordinary happenings — essentially about the many things that moved, disturbed, and shaped me. Had I not taken the time to journal, many of these experiences would have died and turned to dust, forever buried in my cemetery of lost memories. Instead, the things I recorded are more like photos carefully placed in an album that I can view again and again.

A few days ago I received an e-mail from WordPress about my blog. According to WordPress, 2010 was a good year for my blog. Here are a few of the stats they recorded about Go Beyond blog.

Guests | Approximately 47,000 folks visited this blog last year (lots of regular guests). The map that tracks my viewers shows that they visited this blog from locations around the world. This is something that a journal could never do. One good thing about blogging is that it gives bloggers a prospective world-wide audience.

Posts | My blog has developed into an on-mission travelogue and devotional guide. I posted 156 new posts last year on a variety of topics, including issues concerning injustice in our world. The discipline of posting every few days forced me to look carefully and to think deeply about the world around me. That’s a good thing.

Pictures | I added 202 new photos to my blog last year, many of these from locations around the planet. I recently added a new feature to my blog entitled Wordless Wednesday where I post a single photo and let it speak for itself. A picture is certainly worth a thousand words.

Traffic | The month of July was the busiest month on my blog with 9,293 views. July 11 was the busiest day with 957 views of my post entitled On Miracles and Death. I led a team of students and adult sponsors to serve at Mother Teresa’s homes in Kolkata last July which explains why so many people visited my blog. Lots of parents and relatives and friends followed our journey.

Referrals | WordPress tracks every referral to my blog. Many of my guests were referred by Kingsland’s website, links on FaceBook and Twitter, links from other bloggers, and other miscellaneous sources. The online community is a great way to connect and to pass along information to others.

Searches | Many of the guests who visited my blog found it through search engines like Google. Other than folks who Googled my blog by the words “go beyond,” the other top search words that led them to my blog was William Borden, the heir to the Borden dairy estate who renounced his fortune to become a missionary. Ninety-nine years after his unexpected death en route to the mission field, Borden continues to influence others to go beyond in their service to God.

Yesterday, the guest meter on my blog clicked past the 100,000 mark. I am grateful to every person who has visited my blog. Many of you are regular readers, some occasional readers, and others of you just stumbled on to my site as you cruised virtual highways. Regardless of how, who, or what led you to this site, thanks for stopping by. I pray that what I have written thus far has encouraged, convicted, inspired, or challenged you in some way to go beyond — to do more than you have ever done for God and His purposes and to live adventurously for Him.