Two Years In The Making

Sometimes I step back and look at the timing of everything.

This past weekend was one of those times.

The fellowship I attend has been working for two years to get a very special man with some bigtime roots in China to be a speaker for their main retreat.

Two years ago my being in China was one of the furthest things on my mind. I was looking towards settling down and finally staying put somewhere. Certainly not heading to China.

I sure am thankful He had other plans!

Have y'all heard of Hudson Taylor? He's a big name here in China. Both positively and negatively depending who you ask. People here say if it weren't for him and the faith-filled purposes he intently pursued, weekends like the one I just came from wouldn't have happened.

H.T.'s great great grandson spoke to us this weekend. A man with a legacy. A man who is fulfilling and marking his own legacy. A man who knowledgeably and passionately speaks for a cause far greater than any of us. 

Inspired. Encouraged. Humbled. Challenged.

I was a minority this weekend. I don't know what it is like to be anything other than free.

Free to choose. To go anywhere, do anything. My country's passport gives me options. 

I sat in the midst of many who think they're free but do not quite understand their country's restrictions. Others who are all too aware of their constraints. The stories, the hearts, the passions, the earnestness, the reality of those among me - I was an honored guest. 

Sitting in the conference room this weekend I was constantly reminded of this: in my country, we are free for now in ways many these men and women do not even know is possible. 

How thankful I am to the One who has given me the privilege of being born in such a country! How thankful I am for the men and women who have fought, and continue to fight, for me to keep that freedom!

Yet, how is it, in the midst of all our freedoms I find we are also the ones lacking?

"Perhaps if there were more of that intense distress for souls that leads to tears, we should more frequently see the results we desire. Sometimes it may be that while we are complaining of the hardness of the hearts of those we are seeking to benefit, 

the hardness of our own hearts and our feeble apprehension of the solemn 

reality of eternal things may be the true cause of our want of success."

"I have found there are three stages to every great work of God: 

first it is impossible, then it is difficult, then it is done."

"I used to ask God to help me. Then I asked if I might help Him. 

I ended up by asking God to do His work through me."

- Hudson Taylor