Faith in the Middle of the Story

When I initially went to the mission field, I thought that I would be practicing nursing, because that is my training. Since being in the field, I have practiced nursing, but I have also been a financial advisor, a bank, an employer, an exterminator, an electrician, and a plumber. I didn’t realize how many hats a missionary is called to wear—partly because there is so much need, and partly because there is such a lack of personnel. What the mission field truly needs more of is people. But where are they? 

The other day I read a quote by A. W. Tozer in his book The Root of the Righteous that stopped me in my tracks: “Many of us Christians have become extremely skillful in arranging our lives so as to admit the truth of Christianity without being embarrassed by its implications. We arrange things so that we can get on well enough without divine aid, while at the same time ostensibly seeking it. We boast in the Lord but watch carefully that we never get caught depending on Him.”[1]

I recently hit the two-year mark from when my family and I heard God’s call to turn our lives in a completely different direction, sell all that we had, and go serve as missionaries in Africa. I remember feeling such peace knowing for certain that God had called us and we were walking in His will. Since arriving in Africa, I have questioned that calling and God’s wisdom on more than one occasion. I am slowly learning that God rarely calls us to “easy,” and more often than not calls us to “hard.” And in our day and age, whether we admit it or not, we believe deep down that hard equals bad. Or, if it is hard, it must be wrong.

Choosing the Hard

As a family we have been reading about Ida Scudder, the longtime missionary doctor to India, who not only established a hospital there but also founded a medical and nursing school. Ida came from a long line of missionaries to India, and she had made up her mind never to set foot in India again. She did not want to be a missionary like so many of her family members. After Ida finished college, her mother became quite sick and called for her to come help in India. Ida decided she would go for only a year, and as the time came for her to return to America, she grew anxious about telling her parents that she would never stay and be a missionary.

One evening three different men came to her parents’ home requesting medical care for their wives, who were dying in childbirth. Ida assured them that while she had no medical experience, her father was a physician and could come save their lives. But because of their religious beliefs, they would not allow a man to care for their wives. The next morning she was dismayed to hear that all three women had died in the night. It was then that she determined she would indeed return to the United States, but only long enough to become a physician. She would then return to India and help the women who so desperately needed care.

I am slowly learning that God rarely calls us to “easy,” and more often than not calls us to “hard.”

She had peace and purpose, knowing that God had a plan and a distinct calling for her life. She returned to India eager to begin her practice there, but no one would come to a woman physician. She waited for weeks, but no one would trust her. And to make matters worse, her father grew sick and died. The one person who had so many connections to the community, and who knew so much about practicing medicine in India, was now gone. She was alone, inexperienced, and untrusted. God did not call her to “easy.”

Are We Listening?

My own missionary experience hasn’t been quite as dramatic, but it hasn’t been a lovely nap in green valleys by still waters either. I’m realizing why so many people want to claim the name of God while continuing to direct their own lives. Because the God of all comfort doesn’t prioritize comfort the way we do. He doesn’t have an “easy” button. And that scares us. Sadly, so many Christians today want the benefits of Christianity without the growing pains of truly surrendered lives that are lived for the sole purpose of glorifying God. Death or death to self—either is equally painful.

But in the middle of the “hard,” in the death to self, in the letting go of preconceived ideas, we discover what our faith is made of. The hard is a necessary faith barometer. Do we truly trust God? Do we remember that He knows the end from the beginning and is working all things out for the good of His people? It is in these times that we can choose to believe that He stands behind His promises, even when we don’t see how they could possibly come to pass. It grounds us in the fact that we are but dust, and that our Maker’s plans for us will always outshine our plans for ourselves, because He is infinite wisdom and love. He has never once failed those who follow Him. This is what everyone who calls themselves Christian needs to experience for themselves.

Faith thanks God in the middle of the story—when the ending is unknown and the middle is muddy.

Is God calling you to “hard”? Are you really listening? A comfortable Christian life has its appeal, but diving into the deep with God will never disappoint.

“What we need very badly these days is a company of Christians who are prepared to trust God as completely now as they know they must do at the last day. For each of us the time is surely coming when we shall have nothing but God. Health and wealth and friends and hiding places will all be swept away and we shall have only God. To the man of pseudo faith that is a terrifying thought, but to real faith it is one of the most comforting thoughts the heart can entertain.”[2]

[1] A.W. Tozer, The Root of the Righteous (Harrisburg, Pa.: Christian Publications, 1955), p. 49.

[2] Ibid., p. 51.