A Thanksgiving Analogy for God's Economy on Persecution and Plenty

COMMENTARY

I grew up in the Midwest, where we always had large family dinners at Thanksgiving and Christmas. We would all gather at my grandparents' house and squeeze into their small dining room, which was dwarfed by the size of the table once we added in all the extra leaves. As kids, we knew that we better wash our hands before coming to the table because our chairs were pulled in so tightly together that there was no getting up once everyone sat down to eat.

As my grandmother would bring food out from the kitchen, it would always get placed on one side of the table. But there was never an assumption that each dish was strictly reserved for that individual or those individuals sitting where it was placed. No one ever thought that one side of the table was going to be well fed while everybody else was going to go hungry. It was always understood that each dish was going to make its way around the table for everyone to have a portion.

This is the posture that I think we as the body of Christ need to remember, especially those of us who have been entrusted with much when it comes to physical resources.  It's not just for our end of the table, but we need to make sure that those who are not as well-resourced within the collective body of Christ are all able to engage in that "meal."

Many times, Christians here in America can get caught up comparing the realities of our plenty versus the scarcity of other believers around the world. That can sometimes leave us with a sense of guilt regarding our abundance, but I don't think that that's the right response.

Paul, in his letters to the early church, wrote that the God of all comfort has extended us comfort. And yes, that is a gift we receive, but when you study that passage in 2 Corinthians more closely, you see that he has not given that to us just for the sake of our own comfort. It has been given to us so that it can be extended – so that we can be a comfort to others. We are expected to share from our plenty in support of those who have less.

There's a flip side to that coin, as well, when it comes to believers who seem to experience more than their fair share of suffering, which I've observed through our ministry at Open Doors US. Not that they can physically extend the persecution to us, but as we become more aware of their experience, as they share information about the challenges they face, this can work as a catalyst to grow our faith and invite us out of our complacency.

You see, the enemy really seems to have only two primary tools in his toolbox. One of those is persecution. He looks to where he can work to strike fear and intimidation and try to break the back of the church around the globe.

His other tool is a much different approach and one that is a greater reality for us here in the United States – our own comfort. There are many ways in which we can be lulled into a sense of complacency, where we express greater passion and vigor debating the color of the carpet in our sanctuaries than we do in reaching the lost. We are more concerned about a church's worship style than we are with recognizing the realities of our brothers and sisters around the globe who face extreme hardship simply to worship, period. This complacency or comfort is a tool that the enemy utilizes to keep us from living fully for Christ.

The enemy very much sees it as mission accomplished if he can keep us preoccupied with the trappings of our society and focused on ourselves.  Rather than being salt and light and discipling our culture, we are being discipled by our culture of consumerism, rendering our witness null and void.  That is a key tool in the enemy's playbook.

However, by God's wonderful design, he's orchestrated it so that when people who are experiencing persecution come together with those who are being lulled to sleep by their comfort, we learn that we have something to offer one another. We all have a way that we can enrich the global body of Christ, the church around the world.

We in the West can learn so much from our brothers and sisters who are choosing their faith at great cost, despite the persecution. We look at them and wonder if we would be able to remain as faithful in similar circumstances, while they look at us and aren't as certain that they could stand firm amid all the wealth and comfort we enjoy. They recognize that it can also be difficult to follow Christ in our context. They remind us not to let the enemy's tool of complacency win out, just as they don't let his tool of persecution stop them.

So, as we are passing the dishes around our Thanksgiving table this year, let's remember to share from our plenty with those who have less. And let's be encouraged to partake in the suffering of our persecuted family, by becoming more aware of their experience and praying regularly for their strength to stand – just as they pray for us.

Ryan Brown serves as president and CEO of Open Doors US, one of 25 national Open Doors International (ODI) bases located around the world. Founded in 1955, Open Doors has continued to serve persecuted Christians in more than 70 countries, and is known for its annual World Watch List, the ranking of the top 50 countries where Christians face the most extreme persecution.