Accomplishing Greatness

Tom Barnard

 

“The truth is, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done,

and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father.”

(John 14:12 NLT)

 

In the late 1920s, at the age of 26, an English woman named Gladys Aylward was turned down in her attempt to become a volunteer missionary to China. Her academic record was not great. But she heard about a 73-year-old missionary named Jeannie Lawson who was looking for a younger woman to carry on her work in the city of Yangchen in an area south of Peking. Miss Lawson invited Gladys to join her, but Gladys would have to pay for her own passage to get there. Through a series of miraculous events, Gladys finally made it to Yangchen, where she joined the older missionary in her work. Together they established an inn to provide food and housing for merchants traveling through their area. Following Lawson’s untimely death, Gladys turned to taking in children orphaned during the war between Japan and China. In 1938 the region was invaded by Japanese forces, and Aylward was forced to leave. She led about a hundred orphan children to safety over the mountains and ocean, to Formosa. Her courageous efforts were told in the book, The Small Woman, by Alan Burgess. In 1958 the story was made into the Hollywood film, The Inn of Sixth Happiness.

 

Gladys explained her amazing work like this: “I did not choose this. I was led into it by God. I am not really more interested in children than I am in other people, but God through his Holy Spirit gave me to understand that this is what he wanted me to do, so I did.”

 

Extraordinary results are often accomplished by ordinary people who are convinced that the Lord has given them to understand that “this” is what he wants them to do.

 

Heavenly Father, I am nobody special. I have no extraordinary gifts. I’m not even the right age to accomplishment greatness. But I feel you have something in mind for me to do with the rest of my life. So I want to say “yes” to whatever that is. Consider my resources yours. Let my time be your time. I offer you everything I am and have. I do not seek fame or fortune. I seek only one thing—to be your faithful servant. Amen