Sitting in a room of a hundred other people, the speaker begins to address the group that has gathered. The group is full of people from all walks of life. People who have been overseas on mission for several years, others who have just barely thought about missions. Or maybe they haven’t even thought about missions, but they feel like they should be doing something with their faith in Jesus and they don’t know what that looks like.

As the speaker talks, he starts to explain why we’ve gathered for this weekend event. Why it’s important to have an event with a bunch of people coming together to talk about what they’re doing and what we see in the Bible.

The phrase that he uses is something that will stick with me forever. I don’t think that it was original to him, but I had never heard it before and was struck by it in the moment, but even now, being removed by over a year, it rings even more true.

“Vision leaks,” he said.

Having never heard the phrase before, I didn’t honestly know what he was talking about. He went on to explain that vision is like a bucket of water with a hole in it. You start out with a full bucket of water, but over time, the water starts to leak out of the bucket, and if you don’t continue to fill the bucket up, all of the vision will leak out and you will be left with nothing.

I’ve realized that you see this in almost all areas of your life. Ever been super motivated and energized to workout every day and gain muscles, and then after a week or two, you realize it’s not as important as you thought it was the week before?

The weekend event that I was at was appropriately named “Vision Day.” Leaders took turns both casting vision for those in the room to take action and share the gospel with those around them realizing that there was a world out there that doesn’t know Jesus. We also took a look back at those who have done it before and how we can follow their example. Namely, they went through the missionary journeys of Paul and Barnabas in the book of Acts so that we could see how these giants of the faith used their lives to proclaim the gospel of Christ.

Today, I was reminded again of the phrase that “vision leaks”. I, of all people, feel like the worst offender. I watched the new movie called Free Burma Rangers and I was reminded once again of the comfort in the life that I currently live. Especially thinking to my life in Kansas, how comfortable a life we live in our secluded suburban neighborhoods. It is absolutely true that even our neighbors in suburbia need Jesus, but when there are wars going on across the world, and neither of the sides in these wars knows Jesus or has any ability to hear about Him, all of a sudden, that comfortable lifestyle living in the city starts to make me almost sick to my stomach.

It is so, so easy for me to get comfortable with the things that I am doing in my city life. After all, I’ve been doing city life for almost my whole life now, so I’ve gotten to be pretty good at it. It’s especially easy to live it and get cocooned into our little Christian communities separated from the rest of the world.

But how could I, someone who claims that Jesus is the way the truth and the life and that no one comes to the Father except through Him…how could I claim it while living my comfortable life and not paying any mind to the BILLIONS of people in the world who not only don’t have a relationship with Jesus, but they don’t even have access to one Christ-follower in their area who could share that truth with them?

I can’t with a clear conscious continue living that life. Not when I know that God has called me (and all who are believers) to such a higher mission than living my comfortable life here on earth. He has called us to be His workmanship. He has called us to make disciples of all nations . God has called different people to different parts of the world. Some people he absolutely calls to their hometown! However, he calls people to those parts of the world not to live comfortably, but to live lives on mission for Him.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 1 Peter 2:9

If we aren’t living for an eternal purpose, what are we living for? What an empty life and legacy we leave. Not a legacy for ourselves, but a legacy of people who have heard about Christ due to His work through us.

I challenge you with this question, and as I challenge you, I challenge myself also. When was the last time you shared the gospel with someone?

If you can’t remember, or it doesn’t come immediately to mind, you have your priorities in the wrong place. Point blank.

This may seem harsh, but I can’t live quietly on this while there are billions of people living and dying without hope of knowing him because we are too comfortable in our lives to share the gospel (literally translated “good news”) with even our neighbor.

I used to tell myself that I was doing “friendship evangelism”. That I need to get to know someone better before I could share the gospel. But that is complete and utter garbage. If you are not living your life in such a way that the gospel comes up in your everyday conversation, the gospel isn’t the most important thing in your life. “Out of an abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks” Luke 6:45b What do you most talk about each day? Have you considered that that thing could be your idol above God?

I am frustrated by myself and my fellow “Christians” who live our lives separated from those who don’t know God. And if your life circumstances truly cause you to only be around believers, it is time to start knocking on doors to meet non-believers. To be clear, it’s not up to us to “save” anyone. Only God can do that. But he does it through us. We are called to preach the gospel. “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?” Romans 10:14

A final two questions:

What is your excuse today for not sharing the gospel?

When someone who you know comes to judgment day not knowing Jesus Christ and are condemned to Hell — if they ask you why you didn’t try to warn them, will your excuse today still make sense?

Stop making excuses while your neighbors are dying eternal deaths.