to know Him and make Him known

Over the weekend, I reread a biography on Amy Carmichael entitled "A Chance to Die"  Although it was truly more like reading it for the first time for so much has changed in my life and heart since that time years ago when I first picked it up.

Something that really stood out was the fact that today we talk about wanting to do something grand or big for the Lord, like Amy Carmichael and Hudson Taylor and Gladys Aylward and George Muller and Corrie ten Boom.  We desire to make a difference in this dark and dying world.

But reading through Amy Carmichael's biography it struck me that not only did those missionaries not think they were doing anything big but that most of the time they simply weren't doing anything grand.

"From prayer that asks that I may be

Sheltered from winds that beat on Thee,

From fearing when I should aspire,

From faltering when I should climb higher,

From silken self, O Captain, free

Thy soldier who would follow Thee"

amy carmichael

It may sound grand in a paragraph bio to read that "Amy Carmichael rescued and cared for girls who would otherwise have been forced into temple prostitution" but in reality, that was not how she lived.  She had days, just like we all do, 24 hours in which to serve the Lord.

"Give me the love that leads the way,

The faith that nothing can dismay

The hope no disappointments tire

The passion that will burn like fire,

Let me not sink to be a clod:

Make me Thy fuel, Flame of God"

amy carmichael

And most of that time she was doing menial work, 'nothing important' work.  Like changing babies diapers and caring for toddlers and praying for revival and waiting years before a doctor was able to come and live in their village. Like waiting, waiting, waiting on the Lord and His timing.  Like following Him when that meant choosing the road less travelled.

What about Corrie ten Boom?  For years she lived at home, day following day, as she worked in her father's shop.  She ministered to the young girls in her city and also with the handicapped.  It wasn't until she was around fifty years old that circumstances led to her family being involved in the Resistance, saving Jews from the Nazi regime.

"A person doesn't spring into existence at the age of fifty; 

there are years of preparation, years of experience, 

which God uses in ways we may never know 

until we meet Him face to face."  

corrie ten boom

I think often we can forget about the dailiness that is in everyone's lives. . .especially when we are reading their biographies.  That the Lord ordains times of waiting in each of our lives.  That Hudson Taylor, John and Betty Stam, George Muller were at one point living their lives, in the middle of their biographies so to speak.

They had to 'choose this day who they would serve'.  They had to die daily to self and to their own plans.  They had times in which all looked dark, when they felt the ache of loneliness.  They had to choose to trust, decide to wait, set their hearts to follow their God.

A little thing is a little thing, but faithfulness in little things is a great thing.hudson taylor

Yet something did set these people apart.  There is no doubt about that.  Out of weakness they were made strong.  They did not chose the easy road, the typical path.  Instead they sought to live a life absolutely given to the King of the Universe.  To know Him and to make Him known, through any way which He ordained, was their joy.  And may it be the passion of our lives as well, wherever and however the Lord desires.
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