In His Fields

These three quotes all point to the same truth: living by faith means looking outward, showing compassion, and being willing to pay the price. It is a life that resists turning inward and instead steps out of our comfort zones and into purpose.

I learned that lesson in a way I will never forget.

Facing the Wrong Way

Years ago, the church I attended was in the middle of a long and difficult pastoral transition. Attendance had dropped from 800 to barely 400. Sunday nights were even thinner, maybe 100 people scattered across a sanctuary built for more than a thousand.

One Sunday evening, our interim pastor, Pastor Irwin, asked us to stand and form a circle. With so few people in such a large room, it was easy. We spread out, turned inward, and waited for him to speak.

He stepped down from the platform, walked to the center of the circle, slowly looked around at each of us, and said:

“You are facing the wrong way.”

We all froze.

Of course we were facing inward. That’s what people naturally do when they form a circle. But his words struck me deeply.

It is sadly true. Too often the “church” faces inward. We face inward when we become a country club instead of an emergency ward, building sanctuaries, gyms, and programs that serve our preferences more than the Great Commission. We look at each other instead of the lost. We protect our comfort zones instead of pursuing our calling.

Steve Camp captured this tension in his song Living Dangerously in the Hands of God:

“There’s safety in complacency, but God is calling us out of our comfort zone into a life of complete surrender to the cross… To live dangerously is not to live recklessly but righteously.”

There is safety in our inward‑facing circles.

We choose who is in and who is out.

We make the rules.

We get comfortable.

But God calls us to turn around, to face outward, and to live “dangerously” in His hands.

The Outward‑Facing Mission of Jesus

Four verses at the end of Matthew 9 demonstrate Jesus' outward-facing mission.

“Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in the synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest fields.’”

Jesus went; He looked at the crowds; He had compassion that moved Him to act; He called His disciples to do the same.  Face the right way, see the crowds, feel compassion, and actively go.

And His commission to us is the same, and it is the reason behind my signature, “In His Fields”.

The Great Commission is not complicated. It is not just for missionaries or pastors. It is not about programs or committees. It is about simple obedience and making a spiritual difference in others' lives.

St. Francis of Assisi is credited with saying, “Preach the Gospel at all times, and when necessary, use words.” He believed that every step he took through a marketplace was a sermon. “It is of no use to walk anywhere to preach unless we preach everywhere we walk.”

The world depends on people helping people. Without compassion, civilization collapses. Without compassion, the Church collapses too.

And yet the Pareto principle, or the 80/20 rule, is still true in most congregations. Twenty percent of believers do eighty percent of the giving, serving, and disciple‑making. This means eighty percent of Christians never experience the joy of simple obedience.

Eighty percent are facing the wrong way.

God Uses the Willing, Not the Qualified

Scripture is full of ordinary people who made extraordinary differences:

• Moses, reluctant and insecure

• Jonah, resistant and disobedient

• David, a teenage shepherd

• Mary, a teenage girl from Nazareth

None were qualified.

All were called.

And all had one thing in common: a heart that loved God and a willingness to obey.

God does not call the qualified.

He qualifies the called.

But being qualified requires obedience, and obedience means turning outward, stepping out of comfort, and trusting God enough to live boldly.

Dancing with God in Yosemite

I learned this in a deeply personal way during the summer of 1994.

I had volunteered to help with our church youth group, and that year I joined them on their annual trip to Yosemite National Park. Each day began with private devotions and ended around a campfire. In between, we explored the granite cliffs, waterfalls, and streams of one of America’s most breathtaking landscapes.

But beneath the beauty, I was wrestling with a decision that was tearing me apart.

Ford Motor Company had offered me a job in Michigan — a job I wanted. The salary was 20% higher. We could buy a home sooner. My family was in Chicago, my wife’s in Hawaii. Our vacation time was swallowed by travel. Michigan made sense.

But I had just begun serving in the youth group.

I had just been elected to the church board.

I was mentoring Laotian youth at our church plant in Long Beach.

I loved the ministry God had placed me in.

How could it possibly be God’s will for me to leave this harvest field?

All week I prayed for clarity.

All week I heard nothing.

On Friday morning, I hiked into a grassy field surrounded by Yosemite’s towering cliffs. I lay back in the knee‑high grass, Bible in hand, waiting for the sun to rise over the granite face.

In frustration, I let my Bible fall open, hoping for a magical verse to solve my dilemma.

Instead, I heard something - almost as if it were spoken out loud, “Put the book down.”

I laid the open Bible on my chest.

My heart raced.

I stared at the cliffs as the line between shadow and sunlight slowly descended.

And then I heard it, “This is my good‑bye gift from California to you. Go.”

I can still feel the emotion of that moment, even decades later.

It was a morning I danced with God.

Facing the Right Way - Again

That night around the campfire, only the youth pastor and his wife knew of my decision. As the teens shared their devotional experiences, I quietly prayed for each one.

One of them was Johnny, an eighth‑grade boy I had mentored over pizza nights, movies, hanging out, and being a “big brother”.

After I shared my story from that morning, Pastor Jim prayed for me and asked if anyone else had prayer requests.

Johnny raised his hand.

Through tears and sobs, he said, “My request is that Jon would stay.”

I had no idea my obedience had touched him so deeply.

In that moment, I felt the overwhelming joy of facing the right way.

The Invitation

The church is still tempted to face inward.

We still prefer comfort to calling.

We still choose safety over surrender.

But God is still calling us outward.

He is still calling us to compassion.

He is still calling us to obedience.

He is still calling us to dance with Him, to step into His harvest fields, His mission, and His joy.

The question is simple:

Are you facing the right way?

In His Fields, Jon