THAILAND — Riding my motorbike home after a long day of teaching, I reflected on the past year. I couldn’t help but wonder aloud to God, “Lord, what did I do this year? What thing of significance did we accomplish?”

His answer came quickly — tender and powerful, it brought tears to my eyes. “You stayed,” He said. “You stayed.”

Many people who serve among the unreached consistently face this struggle. The truth of the matter is that there are a host of reasons these nations haven’t been transformed by the gospel. And when you work to change that fact, you see those obstacles firsthand.

There eventually comes a moment when your unrealistic idealism is exposed and the enormity — no, the impossibility — of the task sets in:

For centuries, the enemy has been building a fortress around the hearts of the people you have come to love.

Their very worldview is incompatible with the existence of an all-powerful God … let alone a loving one.

Society engrains this worldview into every person, from the moment children are born until they die.

How could you — a foreign voice crying out truth in the midst of a tempest — expect to break through? You realize that you cannot. You never will. You are not enough. You, alone, are a wave crashing against a mountain.

But it’s here that God meets you. In this desperate moment, He reminds you that for Him, nothing has changed. He called you here, knowing the impossibility of the task. He has not asked you to do the impossible. He has asked you to serve, to love, and to trust.

So we follow our orders. We throw ourselves against that seemingly immovable mountain. We march around and shout at the impenetrable fortress before us.

Crossworld worker Gavin and his wife, Mandy, make disciples in Thailand. Let Gavin know you prayed.