Dear Friends.
Several years ago, I preached a sermon on stewardship in which I told the following story related by Dr. Louie Evans, a well-known pastor in the Presbyterian Church. Dr. Evans has long since passed, but his story has never been forgotten.
Dr. Evans was visiting a mission station in Korea where a medical missionary friend of his had invited him to witness and operation involving major surgery in a makeshift tent in an out of the way area. The heat, as Dr. Evans describes it, was stifling. The smells emanating from the tent were oppressive. Hour after grueling hour, the steady, calm, and determined surgeon worked on an old peasant woman. After seven hours the doctor stood up and drew back his mask and sighed, “Well, the job is done now,” and together they returned to his modest missionary office where Dr. Evans asked, “I’m curious doctor, how much do you get paid out here in Korea for an operation like this?” The surgeon answered, “Well, to begin with I get this.” He picked up a dented copper coin. “This poor old woman came in here some time ago with this old coin and said, ‘Dr. do you suppose this would pay for the operation?’ I answered, ‘It so happens it is just enough.’ So, to begin with I get this piece of change.” Sitting down and watching tears well up in the eyes of the doctor, Dr. Evans asked, “Is that all you receive?” “No,” the doctor said, “I get far more than this. I have the wonderful feeling of knowing that for seven hours Christ is living in these fingers. I have the priceless awareness that these hands become the hands of Jesus Christ healing one of his children.”
The story reminds me of an old poem I read.
“Spring is past, and summer is gone.
Winter is here.
And my song that I was meant to sing is still unsung.
I have spent my days stringing and unstringing my instrument.”
How sad to live with such purposelessness, and yet there are so many in our world who are living just like that. There life is nothing more than a constant treadmill of action with little or no meaning or purpose. Their days are spent “stringing and unstringing their instruments.” Why? Because they have never sung the song that God intended them to sing. They have never learned the joy that comes from serving others. That is where they would find their joy and their satisfaction. For such joy is only found when we are doing what this medical missionary was doing, serving others, giving ourselves away in the service of Christ, yielding our hands and our hearts to Him and allowing them to become his hands and his heart. That is when we truly find the abundant life of which the Savior speaks.
The next time we begin to feel sad or sorry for ourselves, may we be reminded of this dedicated minister of healing and the wonderful satisfaction he derived simply by being used to bring healing to one of God’s children.
And if you want scripture and verse for this message, you might want to turn to Philippians 2:5-7 and be reminded that “Your attitude should be the same that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not demand and cling to his rights as God. He made himself nothing; he took the humble position of a slave and appeared in human form.
So, my friends, let’s “get stringing our instruments and start singing” His song.
Yours in faith and friendship,
Tom
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