I've Driven Around Samaria TOO Long

We are in the middle of our Missions Emphasis, and I truly believe that God is helping us shape our ministry perspective on a global and local perspective. I've spent the last couple of days with Dr. Norm Wilson, talking and learning from someone whose life experiences and person involvement in cross-cultural ministry inspires me. On Sunday morning he talked about Jesus going through Samaria to get to Galilee, and in doing so He had the famous encounter with who we know as "the woman at the well." Dr. Wilson pointed out the fact that the typical Jew would not have taken the route Jesus did. They normally went around Samaria. However, in order to have this encounter that changed this woman's life, and ultimately the entire town, God had a purpose for sending Him through Samaria. Now, Dr. Wilson talked about a lot of other things, but one statement just kept ringing in my mind, "Where is the Samaria that you are driving around?"
You know, there are many things that we avoid because we don't really want to deal with the issues, or there are people we don't really want to work with, or people we don't really understand, and really don't really care to reach. Instead of relating openly and honestly with people, we just chose to take another route. We act like the problem doesn't exist, or hope that someone else will reach the people we don't want to reach. There comes a time when we've all got to listen to the Holy Spirit saying, "It is time to go through Samaria. I've got a life-changing experience waiting for you." These days I'm thinking that our Samaria is all around us. I'm praying that God will get us out of the safety of our building, and into our community. God only knows what is waiting for us.