growing.

i was catching up on perspectives homework the other day and i read this story about hudson taylor, who is one of the "fathers of modern missions". i wanted to share part of it with you.

hudson, soon after being converted was praying that God would use him for His purposes. hudson told God he was willing to do anything, or as he wrote:

...well i do remember, as in unreserved consecration i put myself, my life, my friends, my all, upon the altar, the deep solemnity that came over my soul with the assurance that my offering was accepted. the presence of God became unutterably real and blessed; and though but a child under 16, i remember stretching myself on the ground, and lying there silent before Him with the unspeakable awe and unspeakable joy. for what service i was accepted i knew not; but a deep consciousness that i was no longer my own took possession of me, which has never since been effaced...

well, God wanted hudson to go to china. at that time there was little known about inland china, little written, and very few people had gone there. it was also quite dangrous and it was possible that in accepting this calling, hudson was moving towards his death. never the less, hudson accepted this mission from God, and began looking for information on china. he learned that a local minister had a book about china, and so hudson taylor went to that pastor and asked him if he could borrow the book. this is how taylor recounts that meeting with this pastor:

...i called upon [the pastor] to ask a loan of the book [about china]. this he kindly granted, asking me why i wished to read it. i told him that God had called me to spend my life in missionary service in that land. "and how do you propose to go there?" he inquired. i answered that i did not know; that it seemed to me probably that i should need to do as the twelve and the seventy had done in judea--go without purse or scrip, relying on Him who had called me to supply all my need. kindly placing his hand upon my shoulder, the minister replied, "ah, my boy, as you grow older you will get wiser than that. such an idea would do very well in the days when Christ Himself was on earth, but not now..."

hudson, in this particular essay, then goes on to say this:

"...i have grown older since then, but not wiser. i am more than ever convinced that if we were to take the direction of our Master and the assurances He gave to His first disciples more fully as our guide, we should find them to be just as suited to our times as to those in which they were originally given..."

hudson then went on to found China Inland Mission, which is still operating as Overseas Missionary Fellowship . It was started in 1865 and is still operational today. and a pastor told him that he would grow wiser...

i think my prayer for me, and for all of us as christians, is that we would grow older but not wiser. that we would be willing to radically follow Christ in ways that seem crazy to the world, but normal if we look at them in the context of Christ. may we live in such a way that the world would ask us why, and we would then be able to point them to Christ, and they would understand because they have seen Him in us.