Timbuctoo or Tampa?

Bill Brown ... Xiamen University
"All things work for good." Romans 8:28

"Anything but China!" Robert Morrison, 1st Protestant Missionary to China.

When I was young, the word "Timbuctoo" conjured up visions of the absolutely remotest place on the planet that one could go to--and that is exactly where China's first Protestant missionary, Robert Morrison, planned to go! He had heard that the London Missionary Society planned to open a station in Timbuctoo, Africa, and decided that was for him. But while he prepared for Africa, he also constantly prayed that God would send him to wherever the obstacles and difficulties were greatest, even seemingly insurmountable. So of course he ended up not in Timbuctoo but China!

Everyone was against Morrison. The Chinese didn't want him (it was a capital offense for a foreigner to learn Chinese, or for a Chinese to teach it!). The British didn't want him--lest his illegal activities hurt their trade. Lonely, discouraged, and ill, at one point he complained that he would gladly give up China for any job in England or Scotland that would pay him a paltry $250 a year! But he persevered, and the rest is history.

I had my heart set on Africa as well, and then South America--and then I wandered into the Air Force recruiter's office out of curiosity and, to my surprise (and regret) wandered out again enlisted. The first day of basic training I suspected I had made a big mistake--and I was certain it was a mistake after training. One reason I joined was to see the far corners of the world, but instead of Timbuctoo, I was sent Tampa, just 45 miles from home! How I chafed at the bit. But my "mistake" in joining the Air Force was the best thing that ever happened to me because I learned a lot about discipline, perseverance, and professionalism--and it was the Air Force that sent me to Taiwan, where I fell in love with China (and that led me to Susan Marie as well).

Perhaps the reason the Air Force was so good for me was that it was indeed a "mistake." It was totally unlike what I expected, or even wanted--but that was what made it so good for me. We often talk about God being a potter and we being the clay, but the clay must be shaped to be useful. To be shaped, the potter must apply pressure to it, and mold it. The clay is no use unless shaped, and if it is not flexible, the clay breaks and is useless.

We must change if we are to grow, but change only follows conflict. It is our problems and pressures that change us--or break us (though I'm certainly not one of those brave souls that prays for problems to strengthen them).

Though I may well have made a mistake in joining the Air Force, I am fortunate that my Father does work even my mistakes towards the ultimate good. (Romans 8:28 does not say that all things are good, but that all things work together for good. And that's good enough for me.)

I've made so many mistakes over the years, but in retrospect I marvel at how every mistake was used to teach me a lesson, even if it was no more than, "Don't do that again, Dummy." And today we may be in the wrong place--Timbuctoo, Tampa, even China. But I press ahead anyway, confident that I will eventually learn the lesson that this mistake offers, and be led to the right place--which hopefully isn't Tampa again.
www.amoymagic.com