Something Needs to Change: An Urgent Call to Make Your Life Count by David Platt (2019)

To begin with: what a great book to read during a pandemic when you’re locked in the house wondering, “What am I supposed to do with my life now!?” I highly doubt that Platt anticipated this season in World History when he finally published this travelogue, but his book has been a refreshing read for me, while my family is quarantining from COVID-19 here in Illinois.

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A Little Backstory

My sister posited this book for out 2020 Siblings’ Book Club, and we all ranked it high as a must-read for this year, long before we knew how the COVID-19 pandemic would change the world. We like to approve at least two Christian non-fiction works per year, so this became our top selection.

I began this book following Moonraker (which, unsurprisingly, is not a Christian non-fiction work), and was looking forward to that change of pace from spy-fiction to something a bit more inspiring. In fact, I read most of this book on my quarantine-house’s front porch with coffee in hand, as a supplement to my daily devotions. And what a supplement it’s turned out to be!

Basics of the Book

The book is a mixture of travelogue and Christian-inspiration, as it follows Pastor David Platt (of Radical fame) on a trek through an unnamed country in the Himalayas. With three fellow-Americans, he braves the mountain paths and is shocked with the physical pain and suffering of mountain-folk he witnesses in the villages along the way. From adults blinded from treatable infections, to children dying from preventable sicknesses, to young girls being taken away to work in the city brothels, Platt comes face-to-face with the tragedy of village life in the mountains. But along with these heartache stories, he also meets inspiring individuals, the Christian faithful who have sacrificed so much to bring healing to this region, both physically and spiritually.

He organizes his seven-day venture into daily chapters, along with intros and conclusions, and along the way, we also join him for his daily devotions through the Gospel of Luke, his prayer times, and his opportunities to share with village house-churches along their trail. This is truly an inspiring book and a fitting one to read while at a pause in one’s professional career.

Personal Reflections

My family and I are presently away from where we want to be yet desperately thankful for where we are. It certainly feels like we’re at a crossroads of sorts, uncertain of where the Lord will be taking us or what exactly He wants us to be doing. Yet during this time, we’ve been afforded the opportunity to reassess our priorities and ask precisely what it is He wants us to be doing.

• Should we plan to return to a place that currently doesn’t want us?
  
• Should we be looking for work here in the States instead?
  
• Should we use this time as the sabbatical we’ve been waiting for, or should we be getting active again in churches that are just now opening up?
  
• If we’re to make some dramatic change in our lives, as Platt suggests, then what about all those souls still lost and hopeless in the villages back overseas?

Too many doubts still swirl in our hearts and minds at the moment to make a definitive decision, yet our burdens for family and friends back home and our desires to get back overseas remain so heavy that they cannot be ignored. When Platt challenges his readers to consider just what exactly God wants us to do with our lives, I’m reminded of a challenge I’ve often preached and more often desire to live:

God is at work. He doesn’t need me to accomplish His work, yet He wants me and He is inviting me to join Him in the wonderful things He is doing in this world for His own glory and for the sake of the lost. I can either accept God’s invitation on my life and serve Him wherever I see a need, and in doing so live for His glory and receive every blessing. Or I can ignore that invitation and continue in my selfish way, doing my own thing and serving myself. Either way, God receives all the glory, but I will most certainly lose out in the blessing.

This “invitation challenge” has been a key motivator for me in my decision-making over the past dozen years, and it will continue to be such. If “something needs to change” for me and my family, it’s that we need to get back to where we were, or (at least for the time being) we need to see the Midwest as God sees it.

Conclusion

This book is easy to read but not so simple to digest. It’s a challenge to the heart and mind, but also an inspiration to consider just how God might use us, if we’re willing to change. I’ve already recommended this book to a number of friends—particularly missionaries who’ve been separated from their field due to the COVID-19 pandemic—and I highly recommend it to you as well, whoever you are and in whatever situation you might currently find yourself.

There’s a world of hurt out there, and if you feel a tug to help, then take it as God’s invitation to do something about it. That’s your invitation to change.

©2019 E.T.

Read More from David Platt:

• Radical by David Platt (2008)
• Counter Culture by David Platt (2015)
• Something Needs to Change by David Platt (2019)

Read More Travelogues from Asia:

• After You, Marco Polo by Jean Bowie Shor (1955)
• Mongolia by Silvio Micheli (1964)
• Chinese Journey by Jan Myrdal (1965)
• The Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux (1975)
• Rhythms of a Himalayan Village by Hugh R. Downs (1980)
• Across China by Peter Jenkins (1986)
• Riding the Iron Rooster by Paul Theroux (1988)
• Seeing Vietnam by Susan Brownmiller (1994)
• Shenzhen: A Travelogue from China by Guy Delisle (2006)
• Burma Chronicles by Guy Delisle (2008)
• Why China Will Never Rule the World by Troy Parfitt (2011)
• Something Needs to Change by David Platt (2019)
• High by Erika Fatland (2020)