Lately, I often find myself worrying about the 10/40 window. This window refers to the people groups still unreached by the Gospel in the area stretching across north Africa and Asia.

This area represents 2/3 of the world’s population or about 3.2 billion people. 3.2 billion unreached by the Gospel because of governments, religious groups, and other barriers that keep workers barred and force us to use “creative” means to share God’s Word.

I worry, because I wonder when, if ever we can fully reach the “ends of the earth” that Christ speaks of in Acts 1:8. The work that our full-time, part-time, and short-term missions are doing is excellent but truly seems like we’re just chipping away at a huge problem.

Personally when I was in India the futility of my effort began to work on me. It didn’t motivate me to stop what I was doing, but as I looked around and saw the millions of people every day, I wondered what would change when I left.

As I was in prayer recently I began to worry again for my friends that are taking the Gospel each day into what must feel like a losing battle even as we gain ground for the Kingdom.

It was then that I came across Jesus’ words:

Jesus said, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6:34)

Now I know I’ve read this many many times. But for some reason I never connected it to missions and my worry about the 10/40 window.

Christ was not teaching us to throw planning and caution to the wind but rather to focus on what today holds. Tomorrow will come regardless. I need not worry about the masses – I need to be faithful with the one person or problem God brings into my path today.

As I summed up my prayer – I simply thanked God for the Scripture and for helping me to realize that the 10/40 window will worry about itself – my job today is to take Jesus to one.