Time Factor!
This blog would have been very different if it was written a year ago. God has done a lot of positive changes in my life lately; specifically the past year. I thought I am something but He humbled me with great gentleness to show me that I’m nothing. He didn’t strike me with sickness or trial but He put amazing people in my life. The missionaries!
Someone gave me a book about the life of George Muller (a missionary in the 19th century) …this book made me decide to go to a mission trip to Africa last November. Over there I saw missionaries in action. I came back with great zeal and read more about more missionaries: Sadhu Sunder Singh, Amy Carmichael, Correy Ten Boom, Lillian Trasher and the best of them all Brother Yun (the heavenly man) from China. These people shared their faith through their blood …they made me feel that I’m worldly, slothful, spoiled and cold spiritually! You can’t read their lives and continue to live the same way.
If you are like me (one year ago) living in your comfort zone, think that you are ok, not doing any thing extraordinary for God or even stagnant in you spiritual life I would encourage you to read their bios.
Thanks be to our gracious Lord who is long suffering and compassionate … He is so patient with us until we come back to our senses.
August 1st, 2006 at 2:18 pm
I would have to say that Brother Yun’s story is definitely the most convicting of them all - a true mirror for my wretchedly spoiled existence. I only read part of it so far (almost half) and it has spoken to me more than any other book I’ve ever read. I realize now that I am truly a spoiled person. Beyond spoiled. I think part of the reason I don’t see it is b/c I live in Fairfax, VA, USA, the land of the most spoiled people ever. We are all so spoiled, everywhere we look we see and are spoiled reflections for one another, so we blind each other to our spoiledness. Even worse, we actually convince ourselves that we have problems and then we pity ourselves. Brother Yun finally made me see the truth about my life. I have zero problems in life. Zero. He didn’t say it in words, but his life spoke to me and said, with power, that I better shut up and never complain ever again or ask for anything for myself from God for the rest of my life - He’s already given me enough luxury, comfort, and spoiling to last a lifetime. Clean running water, AC/Heat, any kind of food any time I want it, a job, clean clothes and beds, my own room, physical safety, the right to worship God without fear of being tortured, imprisoned, abused, humiliated, etc., and the right to own as many Bibles and Christian books as I want. I am a princess living in a palace. I really better appreciate everything and worship God, read my Bible, and do the service God gives me with diligence, dedication, and gratitude, confessing that I am doing nothing. If I ever thought I was something, Brother Yun made me see I am truly nothing at all. I feel it’s almost too generous to call both of us Christians - apart from being justified by God’s grace it would make no sense at all. And I’m not even done with the book! He says at one point, in perfect humility, that when he faced his persecutors at trial he knew that he would one day sit on a judge’s seat in heaven and judge people and even angels. I believe it completely. I feel ashamed at the prospect of facing him, a human being like myself who suffered so much for Christ and the sake of the Gospel (more than the apostles even I think!), and trying to justify my laziness, self-centeredness, and earthliness when I am as spoiled as I am. I will be a different person from now on, as God gives me the grace. Pray for me. And everyone read this book - “The Heavenly Man: the Story of Brother Yun” - it will really be the most honest mirror you can ever find. And don’t be afraid - seeing yourself on the inside as you really are, even when you look awful, is one of the best, most liberating experiences you can have!