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Romans 10:13-14
Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved…How can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?  And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?

To me, the lesson behind these verses is this: urgency.  Urgency in sharing the message of the gospel.  Urgency in sharing His love.  We are a people who have lost our urgency.  We have grown complacent, content, and cold.  We have allowed other things to take priority.  We have stopped looking for opportunities, and even worse, stopped taking opportunities when they come.

The other day my husband and I were driving back home from our trip to San Francisco.  We had been “hotel-shopping” the whole month before- trying to get the best deals for our stay.  We had learned of every hotel within a 3 mile radius of center-city San Francisco.  On our way back to Peoria, we noticed something for the first time: hotels.  There were dozens of them.  Some, within 500 feet of our apartment. 

The funny thing is, before this week, we wouldn’t have been able to tell you the names of hotels in our area.  We had no idea.  The reason is, we were never looking for them.  We never cared.  It had never pertained to us. 

And so goes with our lives.  We become so used to closing our eyes and ears to the things that concern God.  We are not looking for them.  We miss opportunities that God gives us to share His truth.  We are not listening for them.  We live life in auto-pilot, moving forward one day at a time, forgetting our purpose, forgetting our ultimate destination.  Forgetting the ultimate destinations of those around us.  Our spiritual muscles have atrophied, because we have allowed them to waste away in careless complacency. 

That is the sobering reality.  That is the soil in which our urgency must take root.  We are surrounded by those who will not be saved, because they cannot be saved unless they hear, and they cannot hear unless they are told.  We are surrounded every day by men and women who are desperate for truth, desperate for salvation, as we, brothers and sisters, hold that truth selfishly within our grasp.  Unwilling to share.  Unwilling to go there.  Unwilling to acknowledge and face the urgency of their situation. 

I don’t know about you, but that, my friends, compels me toward serious action. 

I leave you with one question: How will you respond?