Recognize Your Blessings {Thrive This Summer}
I’ll be back in Kuming, China when you read this! I’m going to be in a hotel, shown around, fed delicious food, and most important, have an opportunity to speak about God to both believers and seekers. But today, my mind is on those who move from the comfort of home—not to the comfort of a hotel which I will enjoy—but into serving God in very different circumstances. The global workers that I know are filled with a passion for God and open to whatever He plans for their lives. To remind ourselves to care and pray, here’s a story of one such couple, Martin and Gracia Burnham. The Burnhams worked in the Philippines for several years and were captured by terrorists in 2001 from a resort they were staying at for a special occasion. They had no idea that this short vacation would change their lives forever. I particularly wanted to share Gracia’s words with you as she recognized her blessings in spite of all that she and her husband endured. In her book, In the Presence of My Enemies, Gracia Burnham talks of their ordeal. Martin and Gracia spent a year being force-marched by their captors through steamy jungles and dodging bullets from their gun battles with local police. They fought waves of mosquitoes, leeches stuck on their bare skin, and constant, dripping humidity. With little food or shelter, they never knew if they would ever see their children and families again. During her tenth week of captivity, Gracia made a critical decision that stabilized her through the remainder of her 53 weeks of perilous hardship. Angry and discouraged, she wrestled with God until her soul reached the conviction that she would let God be God and do whatever He wanted with her life. She said, “Life’s not all about me getting my way, it’s about Him getting His way. We can fight it, or we can go with it and make the best of it. I decided that I was gonna believe God was good, no matter what.” In the final gun battle that led to her release, her husband, Martin died in the shootout. After she returned to the States she was asked if she ever said to God, “Why me?” Listen to her answer:
“The first time someone asked me that question after I got out, I said, ‘You know what? I have those thoughts all the time. But it’s “Why me God? Why did you choose for me to be born in America where I hear about you, where I have a loving family, where we have plenty to eat, where I can make a choice of my career? “Why did I have beautiful children that are healthy? Why do I have a place to live when there are so many who live in a little cardboard box somewhere? If I write down the bad things that have happened to me in my life, there’s very, very, little. One of them lasted quite a long time. But when I write down the good things God’s done for me, my goodness! You just go on and on and on. You just fill page after page after page.“ That’s what I say to people. ‘Why me, God? Why have you blessed me so totally?’ ”
Recognize your blessings, my friends. They are many. May you thrive this summer, feeding your mind and heart on the goodness of God to YOU!
Poppy Smith
Inspiring Women to Thrive!
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