I was saddened this week to witness Christians of all stripes react to the death of Stephen Hawking by cannibalizing one another. “He’s finding out God is real now, as he steps into hell!” some trumpeted. “We can’t know for sure where he stood with Christ,” others cautioned.
Here at my house, we continued quiet preparations for Christopher and Jack to return to Nepal today, continuing the work there in which we’ve invested for nearly a decade. Because guess what? Nepal is full of people who are perishing daily having not heard the Gospel. We know the condition of their hearts, as they live enslaved to a myriad gods in a nation where turning your back on the Hindu faith is illegal.
Can I be honest? It’s disheartening to me to witness fellow Christians waste so much effort on a man who has already gone on to his judgement. All that passion? All that desire to shout the Truth from the rooftops?
We need that conviction on the ground in a million locations around the globe. We need that confidence writing checks that support the growth of the Kingdom. We need that willingness to stand firm backing believers persecuted daily by enemies of Christ.
Stephen Hawking is gone. From dust he came, and to dust he is now returning.
But unbelievers in your backyard, in Asia, in Africa and beyond are still drawing breath and, as such, they can be reached. Over the course of the next week, my husband and son will equip brave believers in Nepal with the skills, information, and practical tools necessary to make sure that as many souls as possible are spared the fate of languishing in eternity separated from God.
Please, please… if you are burdened by the thought that the genius of one theoretical physicist did not bow his knee to Christ, remember this: the planet is full of beautiful, amazing, kind, smart, funny people who have yet to hear the Gospel. Embrace the Great Commission, and take it to them.