Biblia

CAREY’S EXTREME LOSS

CAREY’S
EXTREME LOSS

Topics: Faith; God’s Sovereignty; Loss; Missions; Trials; Trust

Reference: Psalm 46:10

William Carey, called the father of modern missions, went to India in 1793 and worked there for forty years, never once returning to his native England. He translated portions of Scripture into more than a dozen Indian languages.

One afternoon, after twenty years of plodding translation work in India, a fire raged through Carey’s printing plant and warehouse. All of his printing equipment was destroyed, but most tragically, many of his precious manuscripts were completely consumed. Twenty years of nonstop labor were gone within a few hours.

“The ground must be laboured over again, but we are not discouraged,” Carey wrote to his pastor-friend Andrew Murray in England. “We have all been supported under the affliction, and preserved from discouragement. To me the consideration of the divine sovereignty and wisdom has been very supporting. I preached on this affliction last Lord’s Day, from Psalm 46:10, ‘Be still and know that I am God.’ I principally dwelt upon two ideas: (1) God has a sovereign right to dispose of us as he pleases. (2) We ought to acquiesce in all that God does with us and to us.”

—Bill Mills and Craig Parro, Finishing Well in Life and Ministry (Leadership Resources International, 1999)