A tale of two worlds

A tale of two worlds at least that is how it seems when you read Hudson Taylor's biography and then look at Britain today. The church in Taylor's day was sending young men out to the mission field by the bucketful - though by 1900 even he began to note more women than men were responding to the call to preach the gospel to the lost.

The story is very different in Britain today. When you study British history I want to tentatively suggest one reason why that may be the case: We are too worldly. In the 1950's couples and the British in general aspired to a comfortable lifestyle after the austerity of the post war years. This aspiration has continued being the norm for the 1960s and 1970s. Indeed with relatively few glitches along the way it has been the defining characteristic of the last 50 years in Britain and has morphed from from an aspiration to comfort into a desire to be wealthy. Indeed what we now consider as comfortable our parents or grandparents in the 1950's would consider opulent and lavish.

Consumerism has gone through the roof, advertising has given birth to a rapacious desire, we now live in a competitive society based not on your skills or ability but on what you have or can purchase. We find this hard to see in ourselves but the place where it may be most easily discerned is in what we desire for our children, nieces, nephews or grandchildren. We want them to have a comfortable life, to pursue a career or degree, to be happy.

We do not want them to risk everything by going to the mission field to face danger and possibly death. We do not live life by faith dependent on God and we are not sure our nerves could take it if our children were to.

Yet the call of the cross is to live that way. The contrast with Hudson Taylor's day is striking and it should make us repentant before God. It must drive us to prayer that God would change us and the church around us.

Millions are lost and facing a Christ less and Godless eternity in hell yet we content ourselves with the baubles of the world, with working for next years eBay-ables. May God change my hard heart, give us a passion for the lost and help us nail this idol to the cross.

Lessons in prayer

Reading about Hudson Taylor yesterday and I was struck by the directness of his prayer. CIM needed new missionaries he prayed read the Bible and felt compelled to call people to pray for 70 new missionaries to leave everything and go to inland China. He prayed and called others to pray with him and then prepared for the 70 that God would call in faith.

I wonder how such a prayer would be treated today? Would we think it a bit naive? Would we suggest to him to wait for God to answer before he started preparing for their outfitting?

Reading of Hudson Taylor is a humbling experience. I have much to learn of his faith, his prayer life, giving everything up for the gospel and his passion for the lost.

Lessons from the Past

I don't make New Years Resolutions largely because I can't keep them. However this year I am going to make a concerted effort to read more Christian biographies and autobiographies. I began on holiday by reading A Man in Christ a biography of Hudson Taylor. I have found it profoundly challenging on a number of levels.

I think however that first and foremost it challenges the comfort in which we live and serve. For us it is a shock if someone dies young, when we send out missionaries we do not expect them or their family members to die as children or in their prime. But it was common place for Hudson Taylor and others. Their approach to such loss has also been a challenge - am I too wedded to this world. Upon the death of his beloved daughter Gracie aged 8 of Meningitis Taylor is able to praise God for taking her home. In fact that realisation of glory is what sustains the family in the midst of each of their losses, heaven is tangible for them.

Is it tangible for us? Am I too wedded to this world?

It has also been interesting to note the opposition Hudson Taylor faced often from within the church, and the godly way he dealt with it. As well as his desire to see others trained up and sent as missionaries, specifically looking for and training young men and women to go take the gospel to the Chinese. We need to look and learn from such a man in so many ways.

But I think what stands out most is his godliness, his concern for God's concerns namely the lost. May God give us something of his burden for the lost we rub shoulders with every day.