I’m not a huge fan of biographies. Ordinarily, if I’m honest, they bore me stupid. But recently I’ve been reading about the lives of three different men. They were from different countries, spoke different languages and walked this earth in different centuries. But there is something that unites them. They found their one thing…
I began with a very slim book given to me by a very good friend (I like slim… less chance I’ll get bored). It was called ‘The Practice of the Presence of God’ and was filled with the words and accounts of a monk called Brother Laurence who lived in France in the 1600s. This man is thought by many to be exceptional for his absolute dedication and singular focus on the awareness of God’s presence. He didn’t lead a very glamorous life; one of the few things I learned about him was that he was apparently very clumsy (there’s hope for me yet)! It’s amazing that one moment of revelation became a passion strong enough that it redirected his whole life course. Enough people noted his journey that I am reading about this kitchen assistant over three centuries later. Simply summarised, he basically did everything with an awareness that Jesus was with him… naturally everything then became an act of worship and a sacrifice of love… even the pots and floors and ovens he scrubbed. Brother Laurence was a content man…
After closing the book on this unassuming monk I felt drawn to a rather larger tome about the life of an English man from the 19th Century… I was afraid that my ambition would relegate this book to the rather shameful pile of reads unfinished, but I was wrong. Though I am still at the beginning of his journey, Hudson Taylor has captured my attention. As I read yesterday, on a slow and snowy train journey to London, a few lines jumped out at me during his journey to faith…
‘“Dear God,” he prayed, “please give me some work to do for you, as an outlet for my love and gratitude.”’
The man, famous for his life in China asked God for work to do as an outlet for his love… His passion for China wasn’t about vision, or determination, or strategy… God seems to have sent him there in response to this prayer. His one thing was a desire to express his gratitude for being saved and offering that incredible gift to others. Amazingly his incredible and inspiration story began there… in his room… in prayer…
The final man I’ve spent my week reading about was a first century Rabi who created quite a stir in the Religious and Political arenas of His time. As I read an account of His life, written by a close friend, I’ve been struck by how focussed He was on a goal He would later die for… Jesus of Nazereth came to re-unite the earth to the Father. This was no small goal. His one thing… it was huge. From Him, it would require everything. Words were spoken, signs were given, lives were utterly turned about and blood was shed. How did He keep His focus when the powerful apposed Him and others offered Him a crown? What gave Him the strength to keep going, even as he carried the instrument of His death to Calgary? How must He feel now when He sees the fruit of His sacrifice multiplying throughout the earth?
Holding my life up next to Brother Laurence, Hudson Taylor and Jesus Christ I asked myself this question… What is my one thing? What would I live and die for? I actually think I have an inkling as to my answer… prayer… knowing and interacting with God... connecting people to Him all over the world…
Now my challenge is: how seriously do I take it…