So far since we have been in Cameroon I have: killed three poisonous snakes around our house, spent an entire day carrying water from a well, stopped a man from severely beating his daughter, stopped another man from severely beating his dog, had two guys try to jump in my car for unknown malicious purposes, and watched a baby die. Though all of these things are fairly common place here in Africa, they are also experiences I almost certainly would not have had if I stayed in America. And to be honest, while I do not feel like I have a hard life, I am amazed by how many Christians tell me “I could NEVER do that.” I say that I am amazed, but I spoke those same words thirteen years ago when I first met my missions-driven-now-wife. I was pursuing a career in film and there was no way that I would ever go live in the jungle.
“Life is so easy for us today that we risk falling asleep, convinced that it should be easy and that it will always be easy. Then, at the smallest difficulty, we are greatly tempted to turn back to our habitual comfort and we risk therefore circumventing great spiritual opportunities.” (I am actually reading the book in French under the title Vous Avez Dit “Oui” à Quoi? and this is a rough back translation).
“Though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:6-7).
“Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions, but for the will of God” (I Peter 4:1-2).
