Carrying the load...
A few weeks back I sent a rather vulnerable e-mail to some of my ministry partners and to my lifegroup about the dual harmonies of joy and pain that seem to compete with each other in the human experience. At that time, the harmony of hardship was far louder than the one of joy.
In response, I've gotten quite a number of words of encouragement and even a few who increased their support to help me on that end of things. To all, thank you. I thought that others might be encouraged by the words sent to me by two of my missionary friends in Thialand.
[We've] have been reading Hudson Taylor's biography this month. He started the China Inland Mission and was a pioneer in cross-cultural missions. ..."He is most holy who has most of Christ within, and joys most fully in the finished work. It is defective faith which clogs the feet and causes many a fall." Later it adds, Christ is "the only power for service, the only ground for unchanging joy."
...Hudson Taylor was one who continually tested God's faithfulness in the areas of finances, work, health and safety. And God was faithful. At the same time, there was a price to pay for his trust in God. The disunity [among Taylor and some of his missionaries who questioned his leadership and policies] made its way back to England and people cast dispersions on his name. Misunderstandings and accusations abounded. Some of his children got sick and died. He was often sick. But God's work went on. The foundation was laid for the Chinese church which today numbers in the tens (or hundreds?) of millions.