In 1577, Sir Francis Drake set out from England with five ships, bound eventually for the Pacific Ocean through the Strait of Magellan on the southern tip of South America. Three years and 36,000 miles later, at the perennial risk of their lives, he and his men had circumnavigated the globe. This prayer motivated his courage:

Disturb us, Lord, when
We are too well pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we have dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when
With the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wider seas
Where storms will show your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.
We ask you to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push into the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love

.

Today we conclude our annual Unified Missions Emphasis. We have been challenged to pray for missions and missionaries, and to give to support their work. Now we are called to join them. To set out for whatever New World is God's next step for us.

Why? You don't have enough margin in your life as it is. You don't have discretionary time you are not sure how to spend. Why be more risk-taking and sacrificial with your life and faith? Why get involved in missions and ministry more than you already are? It's a good question.