Being Faithful

 We all have hard times in life. We experience different types of hard. For some it may be financial, while others suffer with illness. Some people lose everything in a natural disaster, while others lose their child like we did. Something that helps me see the bigger picture is to study the Christians that have lived before me and what their walks look like even in the face of tragedy. I know we are not to compare our lives, but we can realize that others know sorrow and still serve Jesus. It puts things in perspective for me that If I ever want to think my life is hard, the best place to refute that is probably a missionary biography. Many missionaries have given everything and still continue on with joy.

The children and I are currently reading “Gladys Aylward: The Adventure of a Lifetime” in our history class. If you are not familiar with Gladys, she is a British housemaid who wants to be a missionary to China. She gets dismissed from mission school for poor grades, but though months of hard work earns enough money to take a train through Russia to China. Along the way she encounters a war, imprisonment, attempted kidnapping, thieves, hunger and cold. Gladys had a HARD LIFE!

Once she arrived in China, the person she was meeting was no longer even in the area. She again started on a long trip, by bus and then by mule train up the mountain to a small town that had only ever seen one white woman, whom they called a foreign devil. She eventually finds the missionary she was searching for and spends the next 10 years overcoming prejudice of both being a foreigner and being a woman. The two women started a traveler’s inn. Eventually the older woman dies, leaving Gladys alone again with no one within two days distance that speaks English. Penniless and not sure what to do now, Glady’s is approached by the Mandarin with a job that only a woman can do. He wants her to be the “Official Foot Inspector”. She is to travel throughout the country looking at any girl under the age of 10 to make sure that their feet are not bound, allowing the girls to grow up without the traditional disfigurement common in the Chinese woman. It was considered disgraceful for a man to look at a woman’s or girls’ foot. #BUTGOD opened the door for Gladys to visit every single home in the providence and speak to every woman about Jesus.

𝘿𝙞𝙙 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙘𝙖𝙩𝙘𝙝 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩? 𝙂𝙤𝙙 𝙩𝙤𝙤𝙠 𝙖 𝙨𝙞𝙢𝙥𝙡𝙚 𝙙𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙩𝙪𝙩𝙚 𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙨𝙚𝙢𝙖𝙞𝙙 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙚𝙦𝙪𝙞𝙥𝙥𝙚𝙙 𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙤 𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙙 𝙖 𝙣𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙤𝙛 𝙬𝙤𝙢𝙖𝙣 𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙇𝙤𝙧𝙙. 𝙃𝙚 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙫𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙛𝙪𝙣𝙙𝙨, 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙢𝙚𝙖𝙣𝙨, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙣𝙚𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙬𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙 𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙤𝙬 𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙗𝙚 𝙪𝙨𝙚𝙙 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙥𝙪𝙧𝙥𝙤𝙨𝙚. 𝙎𝙝𝙚 𝙙𝙞𝙙 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙜𝙚𝙩 𝙚𝙦𝙪𝙞𝙥𝙥𝙚𝙙 𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙨𝙩, 𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙤 𝙗𝙚 𝙖 𝙢𝙞𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙧𝙮 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 #𝙏𝙧𝙪𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙂𝙤𝙙 𝙬𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙 𝙪𝙨𝙚 𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙞𝙛 𝙨𝙝𝙚 𝙟𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙨𝙝𝙤𝙬𝙚𝙙 𝙪𝙥.

Use her he did!! She filled many positions, the Prison Riot mediator, social systems director, teacher, adoptive parent of hundreds of orphans, spiritual mentor, inn keeper, foot inspector, hospital medic, and so much more. She, a ‘white devil’ became a close friend and confidant of the Mandarin eventually leading him to the Lord Jesus.

So, you might wonder how this applies to us, just regular people in our little corner of the world? Does God expect us to pack up and head off to be a missionary? Not usually. He does call people to go to other countries, but those people feel his calling so strongly that there is no denying it. The rest of us may not be called to a foreign mission field, but we are called. Some are called to BIG MINISTRIES like preachers and evangelist, others are called to smaller ministries like teachers and mentors. Do you wonder where that leaves you? Every one of us are CALLED to be faithful in our own little corner of the world. Even if you never teach a class, preach a sermon, or sing special music, that is okay. If you simply live a life that honors God in thought, word, and deed, serving others when you see an opportunity, you are fulfilling a calling. People watch and wonder what is different in your life. The challenge comes with DO YOU TELL THEM?

I once went to a certain restaurant every few days to purchase my favorite ice cream flavors. The manager stopped me and asked, “Why are you always smiling?” I floundered…I did not know how to answer…so I stupidly replied, “Because I like Ice Cream!” He laughed but as soon as it left my mouth, I knew I had lost an opportunity to share my faith. It took weeks of gathering up my courage to go back and say, “Remember when you asked why I smile so much? It is because I love the Lord”. I should have been willing to share the first time. It would have been so much easier, but it taught me that I need to always be ready to share my faith.

1 Peter 3:15 “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you (for) a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:”

I had the opportunity this week to share the gospel with someone at my home, on my couch. I simply got my bible, opened to the back cover where I had written the scriptures in the Roman Road. We read through and talked about each of those scriptures. I did not ask the person to pray with me, but I did plant a seed and watered it. Now the Lord will be the gardener, tending his word, growing it and engrafting it. In that I have no doubts…