The first thing that struck me about this book is a point from Amy Carmichael's life. Her work as a missionary was extensive, but the truth is that we probably never would have heard of her if she had been able to live out her life in India in the way she had planned. It was her injury, as the result of an unexpected fall, at the age of 64, in 1931 that brought her ministry to the masses. Carmichael spent the final 20 years of her life as an invalid, but those years of enforced rest were used by God to expand her ministry, when she might have expected it to be limited. It was during those years that she wrote extensively, and it is these thoughts, born of physical disappointment and intense pain, that have been such an encouragement to me.
There is so much good stuff in this book. I would encourage you to read it next time God gives you a time of enforced rest, whether physical or otherwise. Years after her injury, Amy Carmichael wrote the following, about the event that ended her physically active ministry.
"You had hoped to burn out, not rust out. You had expected (if the Lord tarried) the natural end of the fighting man. ...This, and this, and this you will never do again. And the road will grow duller and darker with every mile you go -- is that your thought?"
A Voice speaks within you: "Things will never be as they were before? That is true: for they will be better. You will never do this and this again? That also is true; for I have other things for you to do. They are not what you would choose? But they are indeed the best that Love can choose for you to do..."
"And Yet -- O Lord, forgive; the things I cannot do are looking in through my window now, and beckoning to me, and calling me."
"But I am here in the room with you: I am nearer than these beckoning, calling things. I come between them and you. You have nothing to do now, but to please Me."Oh, how I understand the beckoning of things that I wish I could do. And they are good things! I want to be able to take my girls out of the house for ministries to the neighbors, or to engage with nature and worship the Creator, or to minister to other hurting members of our church body, or even simply to attend church with my family! For much of the last year, I heard the Father saying, "No. That is not your calling right now. Your calling is to make much of the time you have within your home, and many times, in your own bed. What can you do for My kingdom from your new place?" He has always been faithful to remind me of ways I could minister, sometimes in prayer, in letter writing, in challenging my children spiritually, and in so many other ways. Truly, as long as we have breath, we have His calling on our lives, and it is to please Him who gives us that breath.
What books have been an encouragement to you recently? Do you have a recommendation for me?
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