The Fringes of Victory, John G. Paton
Does loss haunt you?
Does it cause you to be insecure about your relationship to God?
John G. Paton (1824-1907) suffered losses beyond the experience of most. A month after establishing a mission station in the heart of the warring and human flesh eating people of the islands of Vanuatu, his wife died from complications of malaria. Two weeks after his wife’s death, his newborn son also died. Alone but for native helpers, Paton suffered great losses for the next three years: bouts of malaria, constant death threats, frequent native wars, a serious outbreak of measles purposely brought by a sandalwood trader to the islands to wipe out the natives, the suicide of a fellow missionary, and at the end of those three years, the total loss of his mission station and possessions when he was forced to flee the natives’ campaign to rid the island of all white men.
Years later Paton wrote, “Often since have I thought that the Lord stripped me thus bare of all these interests, that I might with undistracted mind devote my entire energy to the special work soon to be carved out for me, and of which at this, moment neither I nor anyone had ever dreamed. At any rate, the loss of my little earthly all, though doubtless costing me several pangs, was not an abiding sorrow like that which sprang from the thought that the Lord’s work was broken up at both Stations and that the Gospel was for the time driven from Tanna. In my darkest moment, I never doubted that ultimately the victory there, as elsewhere, would be on the side of Jesus, believing that the whole earth would yet be filled with the glory of the Lord.”
My dear Brothers and Sisters, resist the shame-filled perceptions of the anti-sufferers who accuse you. Loss enables you to open the door and peak into those eternal things God treasures for you. Are you able to be courageous and let go of what you judge to be evil and what you judge to be good? I’ll pray for that faith-filled strength to overcome all doubt of His love for you.
Rejoice!
Binsey
