Amy Carmichael was an Irish woman who was a life long missionary to India, serving 46 years. She founded Dohnavur Fellowship in Tamil Nadu, just 30 miles from the southern tip of India. She adopted India as her home, not taking the typical route of missionaries of the day, she dressed in saris and would dye her skin black with coffee. She was a tough women with strong ideas that others did not always agree with but she was loved. The women and children she cared for took to calling her "Amma" which means mother in the native Tamil. At her commemoration service this was spoken, "Joy is not gush: joy is not jolliness. Joy is simply perfect acquiescence in God's will, because the soul delights itself in God himself... rejoice in the will of God, and in nothing else. Bow down your heads and your hearts before God, and let the will, the blessed will of God, be done."
I am currently in a C.S. Lewis literature class and we have been talking about the will of God as it relates to Lewis's book Out of the Silent Planet. Through our discussions I have come to the conclusion that being in the will of God and doing the will of God does not promise safety or peace. I am not sure I can readily accept this thought of unsafe. I like to think that when and if I am in God’s will I am safe from danger, persecution, my enemies, hardships, and the world. Then I come to the realization that I am blessed but still in danger so that I can experience true joy and through it all become more than blessed. I cannot believe that this is all because I am fallen. Although the fact that I am stubborn, run from God and therefore need and deserve punishment is a large part of it. Everyday there are thousands of Christians who are tortured and killed for simply praying together or owning a Bible. Now I know that there are miraculous stories that tell of these Christians who do not feel any pain from their unspeakable tortures. I believe, however, that by enlarge these people feel every blow, kick and wound inflected upon them. They truly suffer and experience not only physical pain but mental pain from mind games and lies. Yet even in the midst of all this, they are living in the will of the Almighty. Fair? Of course not. Effective? Most definitely. The Christians who are persecuted are of the most vibrant Christians the world has ever seen. Their churches are growing exponentially. They have experienced true pain and in doing so have become more like Christ, so that they may now experience true joy.
There are Christians being persecuted in India. Thankfully not where I will be but in a province called Orissa. They are killed by their own neighbors and are forced to flee into the jungle with only the clothes on their backs. Although the risk of being persecuted is not high on my list of things to be afraid of. There are other dangers that I could face, as there is with any missions trip or foreign travel. Although I am not worried, because I know that this trip is what God wants from me/for me and that everything that happens will be for His glory alone. Good will come of whatever happens even if I never see it. I am excited for what is to come!!!
I apologize if this post is a downer or makes absolutely no sense. There are a million and one thoughts in my head right now and I needed to write some of them down for them to make sense. You guys are the lucky recipients. :-) May you take time today to thank and praise God for what He gives and who He is even in the midst of the storms.
From subtle love of softening things, From easy choices, weakenings, (Not thus are spirits fortified; Not this way went the Crucified;) From all that dims Thy Calvary, 0 Lamb of God, deliver me. 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
