Two years ago HIV/AIDS was not on my agenda; it was not even a blip on my radar. I'm a pretty focused person, so I've essentially invested my vocational life in two things: building a model of a healthy local church and training other pastors to do the same. I don't know a lot of things, but I do know how to equip and mobilize pastors. So, HIV/AIDS was not on my agenda at all until God spoke to me in a very audible way –through my wife.
A couple of years ago Kay picked up a TIME magazine that said, "12 million orphaned in Africa because of AIDS." We now know that number has risen to over 14 million.
And that magazine article grabbed the heart of Kay – a suburban, white Bible teacher in Southern California, shaking her world and turning it upside down.
Over the years I've learned that when God speaks to my wife I'd better listen! And then, in my personal devotions, God said to me, "You MUST care about this issue! You must care about it because I care about it."
In the past year I've been thinking a lot about what I call "the stewardship of influence." I don't believe God gives you influence for your own ego or fame or your own benefit. I believe he expects us to use whatever influence he gives for the benefit of others.
For instance, one passage of Scripture that means a lot to me is Psalm 72, a prayer of Solomon. When he wrote it, Solomon was the most influential man of his day. He was not only the king, he was the wealthiest man alive, and the Bible tells us that he was also the wisest man who ever lived.
In his prayer Solomon says, (I am paraphrasing here) "God you have blessed me with both affluence and influence, and I ask you to increase that even more. But not for my benefit. Here's why I want you to bless me with greater influence: So that I can save the children of the needy, rescue those who are hurt from oppression and violence, deliver the needy who cry out, take pity on the weak, and help the afflicted who have no one to help them. I will save the needy from death, for precious is their blood in your sight. Yes, I will defend the afflicted among the people."
Friends, if anyone could be called afflicted in our world today – it is those who are dying of HIV/AIDS!
To me, Psalm 72 says that the purpose of influence is to speak up for people who have no influence: the needy, the oppressed, the prisoner, the orphan, the widow. All the people included in the five major groups that the Old Testament commands us to care about. We must care! It's not optional. And we must do more than care. We must do something about the HIV/AIDS pandemic that is raging across Africa.
I believe God gets the most glory when, in his name, we take down the biggest giants. That's what little David did with Goliath. Since HIV/AIDS is the biggest giant on our planet right now, then there's got to be some Davids out there who can take it down for God's glory. When the giant of HIV/AIDS falls, we want God to get the glory. That is what should motivate us all in this ministry. In Isaiah 49, God says he wants his glory to be global. Our objective is the global glory of God.
In the coming months, you will hear more about the PEACE plan, a Saddleback initiative to tackle five of the greatest giants plaguing our world today. One of those giants we will be tackling will be diseases and sicknesses like HIV/AIDS.
Because the HIV/AIDS pandemic is so enormous and so complex, it is easy to become discouraged and paralyzed – and to keep delaying action. But these times require action!
And the bottom line is this: Are we going to love people the way Jesus does?
Fulton Sheen – the great Catholic bishop – once visited a leprosy colony, and he walked up to a man sitting on the ground who had a number of serious skin diseases. The man's body was oozing with puss and putrefied sores, and as Bishop Sheen leaned over to talk to him, the chain of the crucifix he was wearing broke and his crucifix fell into an open sore on the man's leg.
Bishop Sheen said he was so revolted by what happened, his first response was to jump back. But, he said, "All of a sudden I was overwhelmed with compassion for this person. So I reached into the sore and took up the cross." I think that is the finest definition of Christianity I've ever heard. "Reaching into the sores of life – where people are broken, hurting, dying, poor, hopeless – and taking up the cross."
What is going to mobilize the church to combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic? Not statistics!
I'll tell you what will: When people really understand how much Jesus loves people with AIDS!
How much does Jesus love people who have AIDS? Just look at the cross! With arms outstretched and nail-pierced hands, Jesus says, "This much! This is how much I love people who have AIDS!"
In Matthew 25, Jesus made it very clear that one of the things we're going to be judged for when we stand before him is how we treated other people! "I was hungry and you fed me. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. Naked and you clothed me. Sick and in prison and you visited me." We must treat people as if they were Jesus himself.
That is what it's all about.
by Rick Warren
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