Lifetime giants

I just read this article from World Magazine today. (www.worldmag.com)
I think it has a lot of good things to say. What do you think?

God bless you all,
Emily


Lifetime giants

But why does this roster always seem to get shorter? | by Joel Belz


Attending the memorial service last week for a notable missionary doctor raised the question again in my mind: Are we inadvertently doing things these days to make such bigger-than-life people a vanishing breed or an endangered species?

David Seel was one of those people who prompted onlookers to ask in amazement why God sometimes seems to invest such a disproportionate number of his gifts in just one person. David Seel was a skilled and always inquisitive cancer surgeon—and if all he had done were to devote 37 years of his life to giving medical care at Jesus Hospital (Presbyterian Medical Center) in Chonju, South Korea, it would still be a hard record to match.

But to that legacy he added his administrative skills. For 19 years, he was the director of the center, and led in the construction of a new 600-bed hospital. He was relentless in doing his own medical research and in training new Korean doctors, many of whom now practice all over the world, where he encouraged them to go as missionaries of the Korean church.

"He focused totally on the patient, listened to their every word," said Megan Ritchie, who as a novice missionary in the early 1970s observed Dr. Seel working with some of Korea's poorest people. "He was compassionate. Gentle. I felt like I was watching the hands of Christ in action."

But even that wasn't enough. He played the violin. He painted. He wrote books, including Does My Father Know I'm Hurt? and Scalpel of Truth, still to be published. He was an elder in his church. He was married for 56 years to the same woman, and he and his wife Mary have three grown children. He occasionally enjoyed an all-night game of Rook. Even in his retirement, he would call me now and then, or stop by my office, to point out some significant development in medicine or science, in Far East politics, or in church life.

When David Seel died at the age of 79 a few days before Thanksgiving, half a dozen of his South Korean colleagues and friends boarded planes in Seoul to fly halfway around the world just to greet the Seel family and to signal their esteem.

So I ask myself now: Will we always be celebrating a few such remarkable lives? Or are we doing things that might shrivel the list of just a few to virtually none at all?

Two issues come to mind—both quite worthy in themselves—that may be trimming an already short roster of giants.

The first is the growth in biblical worldview thinking. Contradictory though it may seem, and valuable as such thinking is, a solid Christian worldview may be taking a toll on several fronts. For every time you tell a young person that he or she can serve the kingdom of Christ just as validly as a stateside physician, you send a quiet message that a missionary commitment may not be necessary.

This effect isn't to be found, of course, only in the medical profession. My father was a pastor, and among his eight children were five sons. But not a single one of us followed him into the ministry—and I think one of the reasons was the thoroughness with which Dad and Mom taught us that we could serve God faithfully in absolutely any vocation. I will always thank God for that thoroughness, and at the very same time also wonder what it cost us.

A second issue is the explosion over the last generation in short-term missionary activity. One missionary doctor worried to me several years ago that too many people he knew were being "inoculated" against lifetime missionary service—and that the inoculations were coming in the form of two weeks here and three weeks there of totally laudable short-term service. "I know everybody means it for good," he said, "but the net effect is anything but helpful." (Other missionary executives I know who have studied this issue tend to disagree.)

High-speed, low-cost travel has added to the phenomenon. Missionaries used to have dramatic send-offs, signaling to everyone the significant commitment and investment by those involved. When you were on a ship for 28 days just to get to the field, you weren't likely to hurry home just to straighten out a few administrative issues. You tended to stay put.

Or maybe those aren't the real issues anyway. The thing that really drove David Seel, and other stalwarts like him, was a love for Jesus Christ that eclipsed everything else in his life. Maybe, with all our other advances, we've just forgotten how to build that passion into the hearts of some gifted and promising giants. —•

Please Hear What I'm Not Saying

I ran across this poem today, and found it to be quite thought provoking. Though it's not distinctly Christian, I think much of what it says holds weight with what God desires us to be. If you can take the time to read it, I encourage you to do so. God doesn't desire us to be superficial in our relationships with others, He wants us to live in truth and in love.

Sincerely,
Emily

Please Hear What I’m Not Saying:

By: Charles C. Finn

Do not be fooled by me.
Do not be fooled by the face I wear.
For I wear a mask, a thousand masks, masks that I am afraid to take off, and none of them is me.
Pretending is an art, that is second nature with me, but do not be fooled.
For God’s Sake, do not be fooled.
I give you the impression that I’m secure, that all is sunny and unruffled with me, within as well as without, that confidence is my name and coolness my game, that the water’s calm and I’m in command, and that I need no one.
But don’t believe me.
My surface may seem smooth but my surface is my mask, ever varying and ever concealing.
Beneath lies no complacence.
Beneath lies confusion and fear and aloneness. But I hide this.
I do not want anybody to know it.

I panic at the thought of my weakness and fear being exposed.
That is why I frantically create a mask to hide behind, a nonchalant sophisticated façade, to help me pretend, to shield me from the glance that knows.
But such a glance is precisely my salvation.
My only hope and I know it.
That is, if it is followed by acceptance, if it is followed by love.
It’s the only thing that can liberate me from myself, from my own self-built prison walls, from the barriers I so painstakingly erect.
It’s the only thing that will assure me of what I can’t assure myself, that I’m really worth something.
But I don’t tell you this. I don’t dare. I am afraid to.
I am afraid your glance will not be followed by acceptance, will not be followed by love.
I am afraid you will think less of me, that you will laugh, and your laugh will kill me.
I am afraid that deep down I am nothing, that I am just no good, and that you will see this and reject me.

So I play my game, my desperate pretending game, with a facade of assurance without, and a trembling child within.
So begins the glittering but empty parade of masks, and my life becomes a front.
I idly chatter to you in the suave tones of surface talk.
I tell you everything that is really nothing, and nothing of what is everything, of what is crying within me.
So when I am going through my routine, do not be fooled by what I am saying.
Please listen carefully and try to hear what I’m not saying,
What I’d like to be able to say, what for survival I need to say, but what I can’t say.

I don’t like to hide. I do not like to play superficial phony games.
I want to stop playing them.
I want to be genuine and spontaneous and me, but you have to help me.
You have to hold out your hand, even when that is the last thing I want.
Only you can wipe away from my eyes the blank stare of the breathing dead.
Only you can call me into aliveness.
Each time you are kind, gentle, and encouraging, each time you try to understand because you really care, my heart begins to grow wings, very small wings, very feeble wings, but wings!
With your power to touch me into feeling, you can breathe life into me.
I want you to know that.

I want you to know how important you are to me,
How you can be a creator—a honest-to-God creator—of the person that is me, if you choose to.
You alone can break down the wall behind which I tremble, you alone can remove my mask, you alone can release me from my shadow-world of panic and uncertainty, from my lonely prison, if you choose to.
Please choose to. Do not pass me by. It will not be easy for you.

A long conviction of worthlessness builds strong walls.
The nearer you approach to me, the blinder I may strike back.
It is irrational, but despite what the books say about man, often I am irrational.
I fight against the very thing I cry out for.
However, I am told that love is stronger than strong walls, and in this lies my hope.
Please try to beat down those walls; with firm hands, but with gentle hands, for a child is very sensitive.

Who am I, you may wonder? I am someone you know very well.
For I am every man you meet, and every woman you meet.

Three Alternatives

I am currently writing a paper, and was wondering if you could share you thoughts. In your view, what is Liberalism, nationalism,Marxism-Leninism?

Is worship an action or an emotion?

Rachel's Site


My sister Rachel had put in an idea for a discussion earlier in this blog. Is worship an action or an emotion? What do you think?

Psalms 55

I would like to encourage you to read Psalms 55, it has brought great comfort to me within the last several days.

Psalm 55:
1 Listen to my prayer, O God, do not ignore my plea; 2 hear me and answer me. My thoughts trouble me and I am distraught 3 at the voice of the enemy, at the stares of the wicked; for they bring down suffering upon me and revile me in their anger.

4My heart is in anguish within me; the terrors of death assail me. Fear and trembling have beset me; horror had overwhelmed me, 6I said, “Oh, that I had the wings of a dove! I would fly away and be at rest¬¬- 7I would flee far away and stay in the desert; 8I would hurry to my place of shelter, far from the tempest and storm,

9Confuse the wicked, O Lord, confound their speech, for I see violence and strife in the city. 10Day and night they prowl about on its walls; malice and abuse are within it. 11Destructive forces are at work in the city; threats and lies never leave its streets.

12If an enemy were insulting me, I could endure it, if a foe were raising himself against me, I could hide from him. 13But it is you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend, 14with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship as we walked with the throng at the house of God.

15Let death take my enemies by surprise; let them go down alive to the grave, for evil finds lodging among them.

16But I call to my God, and the Lord saves me. 17Evening, morning, and noon I cry out in distress, and he hears my voice. 18He ransoms me unharmed from the battle waged against me, even though many oppose me. 19 God, who is enthroned forever, will hear them and afflict them-- men who never change their ways and have no fear of God.

20My companion attacks his friends; he violates his covenant. 21His speech is smooth as butter, yet war is in his heart; his words are more soothing than oil, yet they are drawn swords.

22Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall. 23But you, O God, will bring down the wicked into the pit of corruption; bloodthirsty and deceitful men will not live out half their days. But as for me, I trust in you.

praying mantis website

http://www.geocities.com/praying_mantis@sbcglobal.net

This is my other site. Though much of it isn't finished, it will be celebrating the potential of Christian young people in the areas of art, music, writing, poetry, etc.

prayer about another friend's death

My friend Ted Armstrong recently died, he is among four of my friends who have died in the last month. Fortunately, I believe all are in Heaven. I would appreciate it if you could please be in prayer for his wife Diane, and for the friends and family that are grieving. Despite his many health problems he dealt with, Ted was , from what I saw, always very gracious to help others, and he will certainly be missed.

prayer for about a recent death

Hey guys,
I would appreciate it if you could please pray for my dear friends the Kramers. Cecil Kramer, an elderly man who I knew from church, died last week, for age and health reasons. He was a wonderful, godly man who lots of people looked up to, and he will certainly be missed. Even though he is in Heaven and gone from earth, his kindness that he had towards other people and his godly lifestyle will live on, as people that knew him were blessed.

prayer and discussion

Hello everyone,
Thank you for coming by.I thought this site would be cool for Christian friends and family of mine to be involved in. Feel welcome to submit prayer requests here, or perhaps bring up some topics for theological discussions.