"Jerusalem, Judeah, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth"

This morning we were studying Acts 1 and focused on the command to be a witness. This raised a few questions, "what is our witness?' and "where are these places for us?"

My response was this:
      our witness is being faithful to play out what God has put in us and doing so without concern of what the world thinks, says or does
      our Jerusalem is the immediate place God has put us, people we can directly serve and influence right where we are

The notion of "Judeah, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth" takes a bit more thinking. The obvious interpretation was Jesus' admonition that the Gospel knows no bounds and His disciples should expand their witness to the greatest extent possible.

I have been thinking recently about what it means to do things that are scalable. That means, that one action has many, maybe an unlimited impact. Nassim Taleb calls this "Extremistan," where single acts have extreme and unpredictable consequences. For instance, when we dig a ditch, one action has one consequence. When we make a movie, the one action of making the movie has many viewings with each viewing having consequences in the viewer that the producer could never imagine. Maybe Jesus' reference to this growing concentric geographic circle notion of our witness was saying our witness is to be "Extremistan."

For instance, when I am teaching a class at University, I have 30 some odd students that receive the message where I have a given expected outcome I can see through the grading practice. However, when I blog or write a book, an unpredictable number of people receive the message God has provided me with an unpredictable outcome. I have no idea who reads it or what the consequences of these ppl reading it are. The audience for my book or blog is like "to the ends of the earth". I have no idea who reads them, where they live, or what they may learn from it. Just in the last week there have been ppl in over 10 countries and 3 continents that have read my blogs. Is this "shall be a witness to the ends of the earth"?

Making a movie, blogging or writing books are not the only scalable activities. For example, as I traveled through eastern Europe and met the young ppl there, i was taken back by their enthusiasm for life and their optimism and hope. Yet, I was reminded that they are the first generation in centuries in these countries (Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovokia, etc) where the masses have been free with bright futures. My thoughts then went to my son who is an executive with ING insurance (soon to become NN). While his leadership team's immediate focus is the financial work needed to complete an IPO, soon he will be turning his attention to managing the company for the long haul. It just so happens that NN operates insurance companies in Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, among others. While my son's obvious objective is the financial success of NN, this is fairly "Mediocristan," actions that have predictable limited outcomes. However, he is in a position, because of his career success, to intersect the lives of many, many of these young ppl from these eastern European countries. He has so much wisdom and Grace to give them, providing them with a vision of truth. His Christian witness as an exec who influences many ppl, most he'll never know, is scalable, "Extremistan." Through what could be viewed as a job only for self interest and limited economic gain, "shall be his witness to all the ends of the earth."

So it is with all of us, the influence we have on ppl through our witness in the positions God has put us in (our Jerusalem) will go forth in those ppl beyond our Jerusalem, for they go on to Judeah, Samaria, and yes, even to all the ends of the earth.

certainly worth pondering ......