An Evening in Chitral with God
In the far Northwestern corner of Pakistan is the picturesque valley of Chitral, bordered on the north by the Hindu Cush mountains, and by Afghanistan on the west. During our years in Pakistan, we made several trips to Chitral and developed some close friendships among the Kalash tribes. The following account is the result of one of those visits.
One of my most memorable experiences in Pakistan was an evening in Chitral after experiencing a lot of difficulties. My attitude during the difficulties was not particularly Christ-like, so I sat down in the evening to read the Word. I opened my New Testament to 1 Peter 5:10, a verse that I had read many times before. In fact, my pastor had written it in the front of my New Testament about 10 years earlier. But that particular evening the Holy Spirit spoke to me afresh through that one verse, and I saw God. I saw in a way that I had never experienced before what He was attempting to do in and through my life.
“But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you."
First of all, I saw the grace of God in a new light. So often before I had related the grace of God with preserving me in difficult circumstances or simply with my salvation. Verses like Ephesians 2:8, "For by grace are ye saved...," would come to mind. But on this evening my attention was drawn, not to the grace of God, but to the God of grace. It was the heart of God that I saw. I saw how gracious God was to put up with my failures for so long. How it must grieve the Lord when one of his children, one chosen to be an example of himself to the heathen, resorts to grumbling and complaining because of a few minor inconveniences. Hadn't he, the creator of all the earth, forsaken his divine privileges and lived a life of sorrow and shame so that I could be called one of his children? Had I not read Philippians 2:5-8, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus...?" Yet here I was chafing and complaining because I had to walk a few miles in the hot sun. Who was I to think that I should be accorded more comfort than the Master? Oh, the grace of God to endure such insults from feeble man! No wonder He is called "The God of ALL grace."
Then I saw very clearly what hs call was. We hear so often about the call to be a missionary or being called to a particular country or people group. Paul, in Romans 1:1, said he was "called to be an apostle." While these may be valid calls, there is a higher calling yet; a call that we all share and that supersedes all other calls. God has “called us unto His eternal glory.” Above all else, what God wants from me is that I be created in the image of His Son so that I, like he, can reveal his glory to the world. “The Word was made flesh, ...and we beheld his glory.” Ephesians 1:12 says that he predestined “that we should be to the praise of his glory.” That's why we have been chosen and set apart—to demonstrate the glory of God. In the last chapter of Isaiah, verse 19, God says that He will send His people unto all the nations and the isles that are afar off, “and they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles.” We don't send missionaries to foreign lands for the sake of the lost, but for the glory of God. God said in Ezekiel 36:22, “It is not for your sake, people of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name.” It is very easy, especially on the mission field with so many pressing needs, to let our focus drift from what we have been called to be, and to concentrate instead on what we can do. But we have been called first and foremost to be sons in the glory of the Father. When we lose that freshness, that thrill of sonship; when doing takes the place of being, then our relationship becomes cold and our fruitfulness, barren. He has called us unto His eternal glory!
The next thing I noticed was that God has designed that I should suffer "a while." Oh, I had been painfully aware of the suffering for years, yet so often I had lost sight of God's hand in it. It wasn't some accident, some oversight on the part of the omniscient God, that caused my present suffering. It was his design. This was God's tool that he was using to conform me to the glorious image of his Son. Look at the fantastic results that God expects from this suffering: perfection, stability, strength, and steadfastness. These are godly traits that He has been developing in my life, so to accomplish his purpose he is putting me through the painful process of suffering. Yet from his viewpoint, this suffering is only for "a while." "No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way." (Heb.12:11) God is looking at the fruit that will come afterward. The trials described in 1 Peter 1:6 are said to last “for a season.” It also says they are needed to produce the kind of faith that, “though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.” If that is the type of faith I want to have, then I can welcome the trials that are designed to produce it, “after you have suffered a while.”
Finally, after getting the right perspective on where God was bringing me from, what he had called me to be, and the process he was using in my life, I was able to look with excitement at the goals he had in store for me.
Goal 1: Perfection
I am a long way from perfection yet, but, praise God, I am being made perfect! So many people are expecting to enter God's presence with a load of sins to be measured against their works of righteousness, or to spend a time after death being purged from their sins. What a discouragement my failures are! But what a relief it is to know that God is already at work, making me perfect. I will stand before His throne unashamed in spotless robes that have been made white in the blood of the Lamb. There will be no more failures then, for “by that one offering he forever made perfect those who are being made holy.” (Heb. 10:14)
Goal 2: Stability
As I looked back that evening at how my life had been several years before and how it had changed, I could see a definite trend toward stability. As a younger Christian, I was quick to pursue a cause, but just as quick to change directions when the wind blew the other way. My walk was often an up-and-down experience. My faith depended a lot on the circumstances. But I have been growing up into the full image of Christ. I’m not as quick to make decisions or to speak my mind on an issue. For example, I find, to my own amazement, that I am often content to sit quietly in a business meeting and allow the Holy Spirit to work. Before, I was afraid God couldn't do it without my help. This stability is not the result of my own efforts at self-control. It is the work of God in my life, often in spite of my efforts. That is why I am surprised and pleased when I see the results.
Goal 3: Strength
Not my strength, but his. Usually, the suffering that God permitted in my life was the result of my own failure to meet a particular challenge. I was being taught that my strength was not sufficient. I had seen his strength demonstrated at times when I was too weak. Through these painful experiences, I was learning not to trust the arm of flesh, but to rest in the Lord. Isaiah 26:4 says “Trust in the Lord always, for the Lord GOD is the eternal Rock,” and Isaiah 40:31 continues, “but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.” His strength is made perfect in weakness, so that “when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Cor. 12:10)
Goal 4: Settled
I'm sure the last quality, that of being settled, was the most difficult for God to develop in me. As the son of missionaries, I was born traveling. I can't count all the different houses I have lived in or all the friends that I have left behind. In twelve years of schooling, I attended twelve different schools. There was always the expectation of soon moving on to a new place. My theme song could have been “This world is not my home; I'm just a-passing through.” But to my own amazement, I have discovered that the lust for adventure and restlessness is passing. There is no more desire to move to another place, to begin a new type of work. The illusion that I could be more effective in another situation has vanished. Now I can see God is at work in me, demonstrating his glory through my life. His call is not to go there, do that, but to be. So, I am content to be his where I am. If he puts me in a quiet corner of Pakistan, then that is where I will remain until he tells me to move. During later furloughs, I did not sense any urgency to quickly return to the field, for it is not my activity that counts, but his activity in me. His glory can be demonstrated in America as well as in Pakistan. I am his and he is mine. That's settled.