Pastoral Thought--October 15

When it comes to reaching out as an evangelist, few individuals have had a greater impact on missionary work that James Hudson Taylor. Born in England in 1832, Taylor founded the China Inland Mission—it would later be changed to OMF International. As we know reaching out to people we are unfamiliar with can be challenging—to say nothing about reaching out to people we encounter every single day. But Taylor would not stop working for God and neither should we. Historian Ruth Tucker said of his work: 

"No other missionary in the nineteen centuries since the Apostle Paul has had a wider vision and has carried out a more systematic plan of evangelizing a broad geographical area than Hudson Taylor." 

Certainly, that is a strong statement. But like so many things in life, even in the most joyful work anxiety can dwell. It can fester like a septic wound damaging your entire spirit and psyche. It can grow and grow with us in such a way that every aspect of our Christian lives is suffering because of it. 

What started out as a joyful expression of God with us, a proper response to our calling as Christians, because of anxiety, can be racked with mental suffering that is hard to shake. Anxiety makes us feel alone; it distracts us as it undermines the passion and faith that we affirm when we are together in worship.

This is an idea that Taylor confronted each day in China as he spread the gospel to a people who were not always accepting of God’s message. Every day Taylor tried to be faithful to his calling from God in the face of his situation. It was not always easy for him; God never says that it will be easy for us. But Taylor offers us a Christian response to anxiety. His famous response to anxiety spoke to me today and I want to share it with you because maybe like me, you may find anxiety is an easy friend to locate when faith is what you are called to practice and share. 

He wrote:

"Are you in a hurry, flurried, distressed? Look up! See the Man in the glory! Let the face of Jesus shine upon you—the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. Is he worried, troubled, distressed? There is no wrinkle on His brow, no least shade of anxiety. Yet the affairs are His as much as yours.”

I hope that when anxiety pays you a visit that you will remember these words. Then as you remember them, you will turn the daily stress and worry of the day back over to Jesus. . . 

Blessings

Rev. Derek