Balkan Lifestyle

 

As we walked along the River Bosna that flows through the center of Zenica, we noticed these two words in English painted onto the stones of the riverwalk: LIFESTYLE CONVICTS.

LIFESTYLE means: The habits, attitudes, tastes, moral standards, economic level, etc., that together constitute the mode of living of an individual or group.

CONVICT means: To prove or declare guilty of an offense, especially after a legal trial.

This ‘writing on the wall’ was a stark reminder to us on how we should live our daily lives. In 2 Corinthians 1:12, the apostle Paul wrote about the importance of a godly lifestyle in the ministry of the Gospel:

“For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience that we conducted ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God, and more abundantly toward you.”

Our lifestyle, our conduct both with believers and with unbelievers, will establish either a testimony against us or a testimony that glorifies the Lord. Our lives are not our own, but are to be a reflection of His holy presence. This verse is foundational for our lives and future ministry here in Bosnia, which desperately needs the grace of God. However, the river of God’s grace flows strongest between the riverbanks of SIMPLICITY and SINCERITY. Our focus is to keep our ministry SIMPLE. The Bosnians jokingly have a saying, “Why keep it simple when it can be complicated?” Along with SIMPLICITY, we need GODLY SINCERITY. Ministry requires being filled and led by God’s love and compassion for people, not walking with selfish ambition and false humility.

While walking the streets, our thoughts have been at times turned to the question, “What did the people gain from the civil war of twenty years ago?” Did it make a true difference for the betterment in people’s lives? The generation that fought one another, how do they cope with the memories of hatred, sufferings and death? How does the generation of teenagers and 20-somethings, who have no memories of the war itself but who live with the consequences of it, find their identity? Without the grace of God invading their hearts, will they be left to repeat the path of their fathers?

2 Corinthians 5:9-11 reads: “Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are well known to God, and I also trust are well known in your consciences.”

While deciding on to live in Bosnia once again or not, the Lord impressed on us like a film clip of this generation of Bosnians standing before the judgment seat of Christ. “Why did you not believe in Me?”, the Lord Jesus will ask. “No one told us of You,” will be their reply. And then their eyes will turn to us and they will ask, “Why did you not come and tell us?”