Meditation on Jeremiah 1:4-10
February 3, 2013
***
Now the word of the
Lord came to me saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before
you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
Then I said,
“Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy.”
But the Lord
said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am only a boy’; for you shall go to all to whom I
send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them,
for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord.”
Then the Lord
put out his hand and touched my mouth; and the Lord said to me, “Now I have put
my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and over
kingdoms, to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build
and to plant.” (Jeremiah 1:4-10)
***
Les and Cindy
Morgan had three small children—7-year-old Laura, 4-year-old Everett, and 7-month-old Stewart—when God called
them to be medical missionaries to Bangladesh in February 1990. The Lord led them literally to the other side
of the world from their home in Louisiana to serve Him in a country the size of
Arkansas, but with half the population of the United States.
About 144 million
people live in Bangladesh today; an average of 2,758 people per square mile.
Most of the people
are poor and malnourished, living on a diet of rice mixed with curry. More than ½ the adults cannot read or write.
Three out of 4 children make it through the 5th grade, but only 1 in
3 of those children go on to attend grades 6 through 10. More than 1/3 of the
families in Bangladesh live on less than $1 per day. Children are needed to
labor in factories to help support their families or at home to help with
household tasks that must all be done by hand; there is no running water and rarely
electricity, let alone appliances such as refrigerators or microwaves. There are few flush toilets or toilets at all.
People bathe in ponds.
Les and Cindy, doctors
educated in the United States, had a great deal to learn when they
arrived. They did not know the language. They had to get used to the urban environment
and the hot, humid climate with seasonal monsoons, annual floods, and cyclones.
And they needed to learn about Islam because most people in Bangladesh are
Muslims. Less than 1 percent of the total population is Christian.
Les and Cindy,
whom our church has helped to support for a number of years, have worked in a
Christian mission hospital on the western border, just across the Ganges River
from India. The hospital is one of the programs of the Church of Bangladesh, which the Morgans helped establish a formal relationship with the PC (USA) in
1992. Because so many of the poor lack transportation Les and Cindy also travel
to the villages in a mobile medical unit. Les treats adults with tuberculosis,
arthritis, typhoid fever and diabetes, among other illnesses and disease. Cindy treats children with black fever,
pneumonia, measles, and diarrhea caused by poor living conditions. Every day
children die from diarrhea.
The most
difficult aspect of their mission work, Les says, is their daily witness of
human suffering. But it is the suffering and their faith that Christ
calls the Church to a ministry of healing that helps them persevere through the
hardest times. This ministry of healing
is an evangelical task.
At the heart of
human suffering, Les says, is a separation from God. True healing occurs not
just when physical health is restored but when the relationship with God is
restored through Jesus Christ.
The Church
proclaims the hope of this restoration not only through its preaching, but also
through its compassion, sacrificial service, advocacy for the oppressed, and
peacemaking.
***
Did Les and Cindy
ever have doubts about God’s call? Were
they like Jeremiah who feared what might happen if he obeyed?
And did the Lord
answer Les and Cindy like he answered Jeremiah? “You shall go .... You shall speak ... Don’t be afraid!”
Jeremiah preaches
during Israel’s exile, in the aftermath of Babylon’s catastrophic destruction
of the nation by three invasions of Judah and its chief city, Jerusalem, from
597 to 582 B.C. Jeremiah calls the
people to turn back to God; their faith has been shaken to the core. He assures them that the Lord has not
abandoned or forgotten them, though their losses are great. He offers hope for the wounded in body and
soul, assuring the people that they would survive, and that God had plans for them,
still.
Jeremiah experiences hardship and trials after
obeying the Lord’s call. He is arrested, imprisoned, and left in a cistern to
die, narrowly escaping with his life.
Like his compatriots, he loses everything but he survives because God is
with Him and has promised to deliver him.
Jeremiah buys a plot of land to symbolize renewed life that will come in
the future. And though the community
does not listen to him, the people gain hope from the stories about his
faithfulness to the Lord as he copes with his suffering.
***
Les and Cindy have
also endured trials during their service to the Lord. The last few years have
been the hardest, Les told me Friday night. He called to talk about coming to
visit our church in April.
For the last 3½
years, Les and Cindy have lived in Dhaka, one of the most densely populated and
polluted cities in the world. They lived there to be near the Church of
Bangladesh’s social development programs serving slums in the area and to be
close to St. Andrew’s Theological College, where Les has been helping to
prepare future church leaders, teaching such courses as, “The Healing Ministry
of the Church.”
But the conversation soon turned to the most
difficult personal challenge the couple has faced—dealing with the loss of
their son Everett to bone cancer in 2008. They are still working through their
grief, he says.
Les
and Cindy are back in the states for 6 months visiting churches to talk about
the ministry, show a video they made, and thank us for our prayers and
financial support. The prayers give them hope and strength to continue on, Les
says. They plan to return to Bangladesh June 1.
They are examples
to us of Christians who put their faith into action by helping people with great
needs with all the gifts, talents, and resources the Lord has given them. They
are willing to go to whomever the Lord leads them, though it may be on the other
side of the world, to a people with a different faith, culture and language. They
are willing to go, though it means hardship and sacrifice—and living where they
would rather not live.
Brothers and
sisters, our church is in a good place right now—poised to listen for God’s
call to serve with all the talents and resources He has given us. But we have to be open to whom the Lord wants
us to minister. I encourage each one of
us to be more faithful to pray for our PC (USA) missionaries, such as Les and
Cindy Morgan, knowing that they draw strength and hope from our prayerful
support. And let us also be more faithful and generous in our giving—because
God has given us much so that we can be a blessing to others.
And yes, we may
have trials when we answer God’s call to serve and give. We may encounter
hardship or even loss. We will have to
walk in faith that the Lord is guiding us on the right path. We cannot place our trust in our money,
property, or other material resources. We have to have faith that our power,
authority, wealth, and security come from Jesus Christ!
Let us not allow
fear for the future stop us from being the church the Lord wants us to be now—actively
engaged in ministries of healing, prayerfully and financially supporting
mission workers to our needy neighbors around the globe, and speaking the Gospel
through words and acts of kindness and compassion.
And whenever we are
tempted to doubt or second guess ourselves, let us recall the Lord’s words to
Jeremiah when he struggled to obey God’s call.
“You shall go. You shall speak. Don’t be afraid!”
Let us pray.
Holy God, we thank you
for your Son, Jesus Christ, who gives us all the power, authority, wealth, and
security we need to engage in ministries of healing and reconciliation. Forgive us if we have held on too tightly to
what we have or when we have been fearful of our future as a church. Let us act boldly and confidently, knowing
that you are guiding our footsteps as we learn to walk in Christ’s self-giving
ways. Teach us to be more faithful in
our prayers and more generous in our giving for mission workers such as our
friends Les and Cindy Morgan. We pray
that your spirit would uplift them as they struggle with their grief. Bind
their wounds, Lord. Fill the empty
spaces inside of them left by the loss of their son, Everett. We ask that you give them strength and hope
to continue on in their ministry of healing and teaching to the people of
Bangladesh. In Christ we pray. Amen!
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