Lorie and I are in the middle of a biography on William Carey written by S. Pearce Carey. William Carey was a missionary to the people of India in the 18th century. He was raised in England and spent a good portion of his life there. He made and repaired shoes by trade, he also learned several languages on his own in private study. He was a man that said the famous quote “expect great things from God attempt great things for God”.
What I wanted to make note of was the time it took to travel to India from England. The trip in it’s entirety was five months long but what is most staggering was the last month of the journey. Back then the only transportation was via ship and its transmission of movement was the wind. However in the last month the winds were contrary to the direction they wanted to go, and the currents kept them from making port. They were only 200 miles from India for over a month fighting the current and wind to land at port.
Carey faced vast difficulty in his desire to take the gospel to India. He would endure much hardship, the loss of a child, the perpetual sickness of his wife, and 15 years of labor before the first convert to Christ. But in his journey that would yield much fruit in the midst of opposition and difficulty he would have to “wait” to make it to shore. Our travel in the modern age is fast; we could be in Papua New Guinea 2-3 days after our departure from the USA (not 5 months). Rather than enduring the hardship of travel we have a gracious gift to arrive their quickly.
The great danger of course is in our ‘reliance’ or ‘expectation’ that things happen fast. One must remember that God is the one that controls all things (omnipotence). He determined the currents and contrary winds that kept Carey from India for a time, and He is the one that will determine the means that keep us and take us to Papua New Guinea.
Like Carey we are patiently pursuing his imperative “expect great things from God attempt great things for God”. If you are in Christ, are you expecting great things from God (joy, prosperity, sorrow, hardship, endurance, and a living hope)?
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