Triage

An interesting word that the English language has adopted is “triage”.

In a crisis where there are a number of wounded and dying, medical professionals will employ triage,

Triage decides each patient’s priority and order of treatment.

The goal is to maximize the number of survivors.

Even the best doctors and nurses can be limited by location, medicine, supplies and so on.

In extreme situations, such as wounds inflicted on the battlefield, a number of wounded may be deemed too far gone to help.

They are eliminated from the process in order to give someone else a better chance at life.

Sometimes we as Christians perform our own sort of triage when it comes to telling others about Jesus.

We might make the mistake of assuming someone is too far gone to help.

Without realizing it, we might be putting the emphasis on our individual limitations.

We sometimes forget that Jesus has no limitations.

I recall one man who got it right when it came to mission work.

His name was Count Nikolaus von Zinzendorf.

In 1731, Zinzendorf met a converted slave.

This man desperately wanted someone to go to his homeland in the West Indies.

He wanted someone to preach the gospel to his brothers and sisters.

Zinzendorf raced to his home in Moravia and quickly found two volunteers for this assignment.

Zinzendorf’s community was not large numbering perhaps 600.

Yet his desire for mission work proved contagious.

In less than 20 years’ time, some 70 missionaries from this Moravian community were involved in missions around the world.

They found themselves in places like Greenland, Lapland, Georgia, Surinam, Africa's Guinea Coast, South Africa, Amsterdam's Jewish quarter, Algeria, the native North Americans, Ceylon, Romania, and Constantinople.

They succeeded where others failed.

They told others about Jesus.

Zinzendorf’s concept was a simple one but that is what made it so successful.

"According to him: “Missions, after all, is simply this: Every heart with Christ is a missionary, every heart without Christ is a mission field."

This simple truth remains unchanged today.

Every man, woman and child who knows Christ is a missionary.

Everyone who does not is a mission field.

Our mission field may be found in another part of the globe.

It can just as easily be found in our own communities.

Triage can sometimes be necessary in the world of medicine.

It is completely unnecessary in the spiritual world.

John 6:37 (NET) - Everyone whom the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never send away.

Blessings,

Jim Pokorny

The Other Brother Jim

Look for me at http://faithfulfeetteam.blogspot.com/ on Friday, October 20, 2017.

I will be back here on Friday, October 27, 2017