Nathan & Abigail showing off their scrapes
Yesterday afternoon, I was helping Abigail practice riding her bike without training wheels. We only started seriously working on this a few days ago, but she is already doing very well. Excellent balance, controlled braking, reasonable speed. But then she tried turning. The entire time up to this point, I had been running along beside her, arms extended and ready to catch her in case she began to fall. When we came to the intersection, I expected her to keep riding straight. Her decision to take a 90 degree right turn, however, caught me off guard, I lagged a bit behind, and consequently had to over-extend my reach to grab her. Somewhere in the process we both tumbled to the concrete, landed side-by-side, and have some pretty good scrapes to show for it. Through her tears, Abby managed to say, “Daddy, I don’t want to ride anymore!” Knowing she was hurt and more than a little scared, I agreed that it was time to quit for the day. However, tomorrow’s another day and we’ll try again. We can’t give up because in a month Abigail starts 1st grade and that means she will be allowed to ride her bike to school. We’ve got a a good reason to keep going.
The other day, I was talking with a friend who is also a missionary living here and studying the Thai language. “How’s the language going?” I asked. His response was all too familiar since it’s been my own experience at times: “I’ve hit a wall.” It’s true – Thai is ranked as one of the most difficult languages for a Westerner to learn and it generally takes 2 years of full-time study and anywhere from 3-7 years of living among the people before becoming fluent. (There are some who conquer it more quickly, but I’m pretty sure they’re not completely human.) Since we arrived in Thailand over 19 months ago, we’ve met a number of people who originally came to the country with goals similar to our own: learn the language, share the gospel, plant a church. However, many of these same people eventually became disillusioned, discouraged, or just plain worn out along the way and chose to serve in another capacity or just call it quits. Now, I don’t believe for a minute that I’m more qualified or better equipped to learn this language than any other person. At the same time, by God’s grace and through His power, I’m not giving up. I can’t stop now because sharing the gospel with the Thai people in their heart language is a far too important calling to walk away from.
In Philippians 3:14 Paul wrote these words: “I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” My desire is that this same attitude of faith and perseverance mark my own life. We’re pressing on.
Killions In the Kingdom 