Keep on keeping on

Our regional administrator's wife just brought us a book that she said she wishes she could have read before going to Africa. After reading it, I agree. For those of you interested in missions and wanting to know a little bit about life and missions in West Africa, find a copy of a book called, Beyond Surrender by Barbara J. Singerman, published by Hannibal Books.

I'm sure many people wonder why the 3 women missionaries in The Gambia continue to live and minister here when people are resistant to the gospel, living conditions are difficult and work load enormous. The author of this book expresses my thoughts about the matter so well that I decided to quote her here. These ideas go against the grain of much of American Christianity, but this is the truth that we need to return to.

"I am convinced that many people forsake their calling-God's will for their lives-- when they allow their minds to think what they ought not to have been thinking. They toy with the thought, "This is too difficult for me." Gradually negativity consumes them. The lives of those suffering without Jesus lose significance. They abandon God's highest for their lives and give in to their ruling emotions.
A great danger is to walk into God's calling with the thought, "If I don't like it, I can always quit." This person will. He has already programmed himself for defeat and escape before he has begun."
Besides dumping emotions into the "too-difficult" cauldron is the tendency to swim in the boiling mud of "happiness thinking". Many Christians allow their wayward thought to determine that God wants them "happy". But God cares more about the perfection of our characters than our momentary happiness. Consider the words of Paul in 2 Corinthians 7:4, "I am overflowing with joy in all our affliction." Paul was toughing it out. This was not an easy time. Was he happy? Was he grinning every moment? Was he having fun? I doubt it. But he had joy- overflowing joy. James 1:2 exhorts us, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds" (NIV). It doesn't say, "Run from the pain and by happy!" It says to considers trials as pure joy. .....
A fixation on happiness causes people to be impatient with God and to lose faith. Because of faulty "happiness" thinking they believe God is not capable of pulling them through heartache, difficulty or trauma. They think that since they aren't happy, God couldn't possibly mean for them to continue on. They bail out. Their spiritual lives are stifled. They sacrifice deep joy and contentment on the flimsy altar of temporary happiness. Don't give up. Determine to walk on through. Maintain your commitment. Be patient. At the other side is more than all you are seeking."

Barbara J. Singerman in Beyond Surrender