Skip the Coke

A few years ago I was in Atlanta and visited the Coca-Cola museum.  It was fun to taste all the different flavors of Coke from around the world, and to learn about the origins of the fizzy sugar water.  But I will never forget something that was written on the museum’s wall:

98% of the world has heard of Coca-Cola
72% of the world has seen Coca-Cola
51% of the world has tasted Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola has only been in existence 125 years.  If God had given the task of reaching the world for Christ to the Coca-Cola company it would be done by now.

It may seem impressive that Americans give $700 million per year to mission efforts, but not in light of the fact that we pay that much for pet food every 52 days. Or the fact that we pay $65 billion a year for soft drinks. Or the fact that we pay $117 billion a year for fast food. The truth is that the average Christian in America gives less than .20 cents a week to foreign missions.

Edmund Burke once said,

“All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”

When it comes to missions, many of us are like spectators sitting on the sidelines.  Instead of participating in God’s work, were just watching.  If something good happens, we join in the celebration, though we had very little to do with producing the victory.  And if something bad happens, we’re quick to complain about it. 

We’ve been called to reach the world with the good news of Jesus Christ, and that calling has not changed nor is it limited to certain regions.   

David Livingston speaks to the situation so well, “The best remedy for a sick church is to put it on a missionary diet.” If that diet were Coca Cola we might be more successful, but a missionary diet is more important than fizzy sweet water.  It’s reaching people who would never know about God otherwise.

On a tattered page in Robert Moffat’s journal, he wrote these moving words,

“In the vast plain to the north I have sometimes seen, in the morning sun, the smoke of a thousand villages where no missionary has ever been.”

Not everyone can go to foreign mission fields, but we can all be a part of helping send others. Just skip the Coke, and give the money to missions.