“My heart hurts when I hear ‘misguided liberals’ and ‘crazy fundamentalists’ thrown around as derogatory stereotypes. Isn’t it possible that both sides have a sincere sense of the Great Commission, of caring for the poor, as representatives of Jesus Christ?”

Kate Hanch

Children’s ministry associate at Holmeswood Baptist Church in Kansas City, Mo. (ABP)

“Our faith is built on forgiveness. If there is no forgiveness, there will be no peace.”

Ramadan Chan Liol

General secretary of the Sudan Council of Churches, urging residents of southern Sudan to forgive the north for atrocities committed during a 21-year civil war (Ecumenical News International/RNS)

“You don’t need a church, a temple or a mosque to pray. And prayer isn’t just asking. It’s also listening for answers, and expressing gratitude, which I’ve done a lot lately.”

Mark Kelly

Husband of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., who is recovering after being shot in the head in Tucson (Washington Post/RNS)

2nd Amendment & guns

The slaughter of people in this country occurs with increasing frequency. Mass killing has been made possible by the development of powerful automatic weapons in the so-called advanced nations. The mentally deranged and children frequently wantonly kill good people.

Regulations of production, sale, possession and use of weapons need to be strengthened and enforced with vigor. Action is needed because these horrible slaughters of human life are increasing.

Consider how this problem evolved. During the early days in the United States, there was no standing army to protect the nation. To meet the need for a military force, a citizens’ militia was formed. When the call to arms went out, the citizens would get their long rifles from their homes and assemble to defend the nation. There were no automatic weapons, which were designed for mass destruction of human life.

In that era—more than 200 years ago—the Second Amendment was adopted. It reads: “A well-regulated militia being necessary for the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”

Our judicial history reveals the Second Amendment does not mean any person may keep any weapon and bear it at any place.

An urgent need exists for more effective regulation of the manufacturing, sale, possession and use of automatic weapons that have the capacity for mass killing of humans.

Dale Brown

Mexia

Evolution ‘not science’

No one could disagree with Daniel Foster’s quote in Out Loud: “Studying natural science doesn’t take anything away from God” (Nov. 29), but it is hard to understand how an educated person would assert that which was disproved scientifically more than 100 years ago—evolution (spontaneous generation), is an “established scientific fact.”

Not only is evolution not science, it violates almost every known scientific law! Jesus said, “If the light that is in you is darkness, how great is your darkness.”

Ronald Reagan said it this way: “It’s not that they’re ignorant; it’s just that so much of what they know is not true.”

Jennifer Burgess

Haskell

Taxes & dirty dishes

Today, I filled out the form to send my final estimated tax payment to the IRS for 2010. To be politically correct in today’s America, I suppose I should say it made my blood pressure rise to think about sending another tax payment to the government.

A little plaque has hung over our sink during the 28 years we have lived in our current home. It starts off with “Thank God for dirty dishes …” and goes on to tell us the dirty dishes are not only evidence of having enough food while many in the world are hungry, but it reminds of many other blessings as well.

Although my income has been modest over the years, I have paid taxes every year since 1957. Instead of complaining and getting upset about it, I compare paying taxes to the dirty dishes. The income I have received is evidence of God’s blessing, and it is a privilege to contribute my fair share for the benefit of the great country in which we live.

Carl L. Hess

Ozark, Ala.

What do you think? Send letters to Editor Marv Knox by mail: P.O. Box 660267, Dallas 75266-0267; or by e-mail: marvknox@baptiststandard.com.

I attempted to warn them not to play there, but the communication barrier thwarted my attempts. Then I saw a little 2-year-old boy had the bottom of the glass bottle in his hand. As I took it from him, I saw blood on his fingers. He wasn’t crying. He didn’t look hurt, even though he was bleeding. He just stared blankly at me. Maybe he just wanted someone to notice, to acknowledge that he was there.

Maybe the things that he had seen already in his short life numbed the pain. Maybe he thought that he was in trouble, so he shouldn’t cry. I don’t know, but it stuck with me.

I picked him up, and ran over to his mother in an apartment about 20 yards away. She thanked me while his father came out and yelled at the little girl to get away from the glass shards. Kristi and I picked them up and made our way to Dilli and Bhuma’s house.

I washed a few drips of blood off my hands, and sat silently reflecting in Dilli and Bhuma’s house.

Is it too small a thing that we try to share the gospel of truth with the Bhutanese?

Maybe it is not that we, personally, should try to save all nations… but that is God’s plan. He is not content with simply reaching the Bhutanese. God wants all nations to come to salvation, all nations to glorify Him.     

I also learned that we ought to consider things not from an earthly point of view, but from a heavenly one; and to “think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth” (Colossians 3:2). There is so much beauty over at the apartments, and even more potential for beauty. God is present and active in the lives of Bhutanese, Iraqis, Somalians, Americans—all of humanity. God is restoring his creation. He is redeeming his people, and saving and sanctifying through Jesus Christ.

The other day, I saw a beautiful tree made from broken beer bottles. I think that's what God does, and calls us to do—make beautiful things out of pieces of broken creation.

Matthew Johnston, a student at Wayland Baptist University, is serving as a Go Now missionary with Segue, a ministry to refugees.

Did you know that 94 percent of females forced to perform sexual acts and considered victims of human trafficking are 17 years old and younger?

Did you know 12 percent of trafficking cases are women and men forced into slavery, bondage or involuntary servitude?

Did you know victims are not just immigrants brought to the United States, but U.S. citizens are exploiting an estimated 14,000 to 17,000 other U.S. citizens every year?

Those sad and staggering statistics gathered by the U.S. Department of Justice are precisely the reasons why Christians should not only care about the issue of human trafficking but care deeply.

Countries worldwide marked International Human Trafficking Awareness month during January. But my hope is that the awareness continues every day until human trafficking — which has become a $32 billion industry and rivals illegal drug operations — has such a bright spotlight on it that the victims find freedom and support.

Imagine being held against your will, forced into acts that are not of your choice, at odds with all you believe and it is easy to understand why there is such a staggering rate of drug abuse and suicide among victims of trafficking

In every life, a person eventually wonders, “Why am I here?”  Christians are given the answer in this conclusion to the purpose of man:  “Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind” (Ecclesiastes 12:13, NIV).

To stand aside and watch another forced to disobey God and his commandments is a dereliction of duty and the antithesis of our principal direction. It ignores the directive of Christ that we love one another.

Victims of trafficking are wounded and broken. Christian principles in active practice demonstrate constructive alternatives—ones that offer hope and practical tools that implemented in life can aid in healing. It isn’t a matter of saying healing is possible. It’s showing in real life situations how to cope, to adjust your mindset, to draw strength from the positive influences around you as well as faith. Faith, hope and love all have been beaten or tortured out of victims. But if in an environment where those things thrive and are the driving force in actions and deeds, they can reemerge in victims and give them an opportunity to redefine their lives and the value of those lives.

Throughout the Bible, we see that change and progress is a two-step process. On a personal level, we must seek and then find. We must knock before the door opens. These victims, so battered and bruised and hopeless, have lost sight of that or perhaps never had sight of that. But caring Christians living the life, walking the walk of faith, can show through their actions that if you do your part, then God will do his part. Ask and you will receive. He will not deny you.

As people of faith, we’ve had relatable experiences. We know that none are beyond his reach. And we know that at some point in time—often many times during the course of a typical life—we all need someone to light up a path to lead us from darkness into the light. We’ve experienced the majesty of faith:  incidents that defy explanation, solutions to problems where there simply were no solutions. We’ve seen those lost find him and find their way.

Yet sometimes people are so broken, the darkness is absolutely void of light, and the broken just can’t see a way out of their situation. This is how I imagine trafficking victims. Held against their will, forced to act in ways they oppose, beaten and broken at the slightest assertion of any opposition, any assertion of their own will. Quickly they learn to survive requires doing what they’re told, when they’re told, in the way they’re told. Hope dies. Darkness envelops them. They’re lost.

Unless someone lights that path, and shows them a path exists that can lead them out of that darkness, they stay lost. Their purpose, their potential will go unfulfilled. As will their opportunity to do their duty to mankind.

Knowing this, knowing our own responsibilities and duties, as Christians how can we not care about these victims?  How can we not care about human trafficking?

Vicki Hinze is the author of Deadly Ties, a novel on the subject of human trafficking, due for release Feb. 8 by Multnomah.
 
 

Thanks to podcasts and streaming video, many Christians have become connoisseurs of preaching. In a surprising number of churches, this has resulted in discontent, not unlike the marital maelstrom produced when their fellow church members become preoccupied by prodigious amounts of another web-delivered product.

I’m talking about pornography. Hear me out.

Pastors and counselors confirm porn is sadly and shockingly prevalent, even in Christians’ homes, and it wreaks havoc on wedlock. Too often, they’re asked to mend marriages after one partner—usually the husband; sometimes the wife—has descended into smut. Many aspects of porn are harmful. We could discuss how it objectifies and degrades people created in God’s image. We could consider how it fuels sex trafficking and leads to other crime. But porn particularly harms marriages by simulating sur-real fantasy and setting unrealistic expectations. Normal people don’t look like porn stars. Their bodies don’t defy the laws of genetics and/or physics. Most married couples don’t have sex like porn stars—in either frequency, physical positions or exotic locations.

So, when a spouse starts expecting sex to mirror a porn mirage, the marriage is in trouble. Real life can’t compete with chimera. Attempts to insert porn fantasy into a real marriage often result in anger, estrangement and even terror.

Besides everything else that’s wrong with it, pornography is problematic because it’s so unrealistic. And that’s where the comparison to preaching comes along.

Thanks to technology, the best preaching on the planet is available to practically everyone, practically everywhere. Many serious Christians listen to sermons on their computers or their handheld devices. This is wonderful for nurture and inspiration. Great preaching often leads to great faith, as well as to works of astounding courage, commitment and compassion.

The problem develops when church members start wanting, and sometimes demanding, their pastor preach as well as their favorite proclaimers. That’s no more fair or logical than a husband who watches porn expecting his wife to look, dress and make love like a starlet.

Three reasons:

• When you choose a mate or call a pastor, you make the best decision you can (and if you’re a Christian, theoretically, you pray about it and seek God’s guidance), and then you move forward faithfully in light of that decision.

• It’s presumptuous to expect more than you deliver. Most people who want a porn star for a spouse don’t look like one, either. And most people who want a world-class preacher aren’t necessarily world-class church members themselves.

• And it’s not what it seems. Pornography wouldn’t be nearly so popular without surgical enhancements, make-believe sets, flattering lighting and digital editing. That’s a far cry from the real life of birthing babies, raising kids, holding down jobs and making ends meet. This is a crude comparison, but what you can’t see behind a sermon is kind of like the difference between porn and marriage. Sure, the podcast preacher is gifted. But quite likely, his job is structured so he spends most of his time preparing to preach. He may even have a researcher who helps him find those gripping illustrations. No wonder his sermons are splendid. Meanwhile, your preacher is marrying and burying, visiting the sick, looking after the elderly, consulting with committees, counseling the bereaved or confused, working with staff and keeping your too-human church going.

Every metaphor breaks down, and I see a flaw in this one. Listening to sermons is good for you; watching porn is not. But neither is setting unrealistic expectations for pastors. Most admit they could and should preach better.

I’ll choose a durable marriage over sexual fantasy any time. And I’ll thank God for pastors who work hard at preaching and also walk beside church members through all life’s challenges.

–Marv Knox is editor of the Baptist Standard. Visit his FaithWorks Blog.

Dear Ezra,

The moment your wail blared out the birthing-room door and across the hall, my heart did backflips. Nana, your daddy’s mother, and I looked at each other and proclaimed, “Ezra’s here!”

Across years to come, I’ll dry your tears and calm your sobs. But in that moment, your full-throated cry sounded absolutely splendid. You announced your arrival into this magnificent, lovely, frightful, mysterious, crowded, ever-changing world. It will be a far, far better place because you have joined us.

When I entered the room where you were born, I didn’t know which way to look first. After all, you are my first grandchild, but Lindsay, your mama, is my baby, and Jody, your grandmama, is the love of my life. So, I checked to see that your mama was OK, and Jody gave me a million-watt smile. And then, like a heart-magnet, you pulled me to your crib.

Molly, your Auntie M, knows I like to joke that most babies look quite a bit like Winston Churchill—all chubby, round and wrinkled. But even with marks of the forceps still on the sides of your little head, you were just beautiful. Someday, you’ll want people to call you handsome. (I had to settle for what Jody calls cute.) But for now, you are indisputably beautiful, because God made you that way.

Well, I’m looking forward to being your grandfather. When I was about your age, I started getting acquainted with Pop and Popo, my grandfathers, and they gave me an excellent orientation into grandfatherhood. The main thing I remember about them was how we had fun. And so I hope that in 54 years, when you are the age I am now, and I am gone to heaven, you’ll look forward to fun times with your grandchildren because you and I had so much fun together.

Many of my friends who already are grandparents tell me my job is to spoil you. I’m not so sure I totally agree with that. See, I’m a little bit scared of your mama. She is my daughter, but she’s also kinda tough, and I don’t want to cross her—too much, anyway.

Still that doesn’t mean we can’t pretty much do what we want to do. I’m not quite certain what that means with a little boy, since your mama and Auntie M are girls. Most likely, we’ll play a lot more ball, and maybe go fishing and swimming, and take rides in the car just to get away by ourselves. We’ll eat plenty of ice cream and watermelon. And we’ll read books together. That was one of the best things I did with your mama.

Jody and I will do everything we can to help your mama and daddy as they raise you in what the Bible calls the “nurture and admonition of the Lord.” No matter what else any of us do for you, teaching you to love God and follow Jesus will be the best gift we can give you.

I love you, my little man,

Marvo

Words matter. So, I felt put off when speakers at a Baptist meeting filled the air with ministerial jargon, insider language, clichés and sexist comments. Can such misuse of language help explain the decline in church attendance and Christian commitment?

Words can bless or curse, edify or tear down, illumine or obscure. I understand how language heard at this conference can be confusing and even offensive, particularly if you try to listen to it from the perspective of a nonbeliever. This question touches two different, yet related, areas—religious jargon and sexist comments.

“When I was 12 years old, I walked the aisle at my church. The preacher took me by the hand and led me in the Sinner’s Prayer. I accepted Christ and was washed in the blood of the lamb. Now, I’m glory-bound forever.” It’s easy to fall into the habit of using religious jargon such as this. It is part of our Baptist and conservative evangelical subculture, and it serves as a kind of shorthand. Yet it’s incomprehensible to nonbelievers, and it makes us appear as if we’re members of an exclusive club. I don’t think people who use such language intend to exclude others. They merely don’t think of the fact outsiders don’t understand what they’re saying.

We believers need to remember our jargon and clichés are incomprehensible to many people. We wouldn’t go to Mexico, preach the gospel in English and expect everyone there to understand what we’re saying. Instead, we would preach in Spanish, so the people could understand. When we proclaim the gospel in our worship or at any other time, we need to remember many listeners don’t understand our church language.

Your second concern regards sexist comments. These comments often involve excluding women in one’s speech and/or making derogatory statements about women. Failing to use inclusive language may seem like a small matter, but many believers and nonbelievers find it offensive. This is a matter of gospel inclusion, not political correctness. It makes no sense to leave out half of your hearers. Derogatory statements concerning women are more serious. Regardless of your view of the role of women in the church, belittling women is disrespectful and unseemly. It’s wrong in itself. Beyond that, it confirms to nonbelievers that Christians don’t respect women. Books like Dan Kimball’s They Like Jesus, But Not the Church illustrate how disrespect for women obscures our gospel proclamation.

Many factors influence our current declines in church attendance and commitment. Using religious jargon and making sexist statements may be among such factors because they harm our proclamation of the good news of Christ. We never should allow such things to become “stumbling blocks” for people who wish to follow Christ.

Robert Prince, pastor

First Baptist Church, Waynesville, N.C.

Right or Wrong? is sponsored by the T.B. Maston Chair of Christian Ethics at Hardin-Simmons University’s Logsdon School of Theology. Send your questions about how to apply your faith to btillman@hsutx.edu.

“Our faith intersects society at many points, including the political process. I am driven not by partisanship but by theology.”

Richard Bridges

Kentucky minister, in an essay about the implications of bills, approved by the state senate, on immigration, education and abortion

“I liked the parts where some character was once this, but he ended up being that. Like he’d be dissing Jesus, and then he ends up being a saint. That was cool.”

Lil Wayne

Rapper, describing how he read the Bible during his recently completed prison sentence (Rolling Stone/RNS)

“People just don’t have the same respect for churches that they used to.”

Ella Redfield

Pastor of New Creation Church in Silver Spring, Md., after an intruder broke into the church and stole 40,000 pennies donated by children and parishioners to help poor children (Washington Post/RNS)

“It’s very Baptist. If you’re going to give up sin, you got to sin.”

Dawn Rizos

Chief executive of the Lodge, a Dallas strip club, on why such businesses are flourishing in the North Texas city, despite the bad economy (New York Times)

“I probably had about four beers and five wines. I don’t know, but I (was) kinda listening to Billy through the haze of alcohol.”

George W. Bush

Former U.S. president, speaking about a visit by evangelist Billy Graham to his father’s Maine home the day before he went on a walk with Graham that eventually led him to quit drinking and embrace Christianity (Focus on the Family/CNN.com/RNS)

Burden for Mexico

We have a burden we cannot carry by ourselves. This burden has to do with our dear friends who live across the Rio Grande border of our state.

They are the same brothers and sisters with whom we have worked so closely for three decades. They are the same Christian stalwarts who helped us build churches, train new Christians and develop self-help programs for thousands of indigent people. These are the same God-fearing people who labored with our Texas Baptist churches to see a mission field come alive with creative ways to bring people to Jesus.

These, our Christian friends, are hurting. The violence that now dominates northern Mexico is seriously hurting many. Please pay attention to the local Texas border missionaries. They know how to help. Pray for Daniel Rangel, the River Ministry director. He will be leading out with helpful information at the River Ministry retreats currently being held.

Any way we can let the Christian people in Mexico know they have not been forgotten is good.

Friends, we have prayed for God’s intervention many times before concerning the border work. So, let’s make this a concerted effort.

Elmin & Betty Howell

Rockwall

Tolerance for songs

I grew up with a King James Bible. Then the Living Bible came in. Soon, the New American Standard, then New International Version, then English Standard Version, and now the Holman. It wasn’t a problem, just a little harder to follow along when we read out loud in church.

But when someone started singing “newer” songs, trouble started. And when someone raised their hands. Oh, my, big trouble.

Why were we Baptists so tolerant of newer translations of the Bible—with a few exceptions—but so intolerant of newer songs and other expressions of our faith?

I’ve not yet heard of a church having a King James Version early service and a New American Standard Version late service. What does this say about us?

Bubba Stahl

Kingsland

Worship vs. show biz

On rare occasions, our choir sings something so good that there is no applause, just reverent silence.

Time was when as a call to worship we sang the Doxology. Today, it would be more appropriate to begin the service with “There’s no Business Like Show Business.”

Richard Berry

Longview

Harry as Christ figure

To think of Harry Potter as a “an example of a Christ figure in contemporary fiction” (Dec. 13) takes some convoluted logic and an excessive stretch of the imagination.

In Star Wars, there was a reference to “The Force” as a mystical being with powers, but was that the God of Abraham? This perversion of Christianity creates the foundations for cults like Jim Jones, David Koresh and the name of the man that I can’t remember who was the self-professed leader of (a) church that threw his children off the balcony of a highrise hotel, killing all except one, who survived by landing on a wrought-iron fence.

Should we change Christmas to Harrymas? I’ve noticed that whenever this contemporary change occurs, power and/or money are the bottom line. The God of Abraham and Jesus Christ do not need to be reinvented or made contemporary.

Fred Rosenbaum

Gainesville

Several years ago when I was pastor of First Baptist Church in Panhandle, we sent a group of young women to a Woman’s Missionary Union conference in Fort Worth. They made it to the conference fine, but the trip home was an adventure. The usual route ran north on I-35 from Fort Worth and then west on US-287. Unfortunately, this group got to talking, and the next sign they saw said, “Welcome to Oklahoma.” They turned around and ultimately found their way home.

The moral of the story is that if you don’t know where you are going, you may end up in Oklahoma.

I thought of that story this week as our convention looks at where we are headed as Texas Baptists.

The search for a new leader—executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board—has begun. So what is our direction in the meantime? I believe this is not the time to wait. Our vision is Hope 1:8, based on Acts 1:8. That is not a vision invented in the last three years. It is a vision and mission given to us as the last recorded words our Lord spoke on this earth. It is what we must be about as individuals, churches, associations, institutions and as a state convention. It is the mandate of our faith.

So how do we do it? It begins with prayer. Let me ask you to pray specifically for several things. Please pray for the executive director search committee as they seek to find the person God already has prepared to lead Texas Baptists. Please pray for our Executive Board staff as we seek to help churches move ahead in the mission mandate our Lord left us. Please pray for our associations as they help churches and our state convention as we shoulder the work of being witnesses. Please pray for our institutions as they partner with the convention to collaborate in the Hope 1:8 mission. Please pray for our Jerusalems, Judeas, Samarias and the ends of the earth that we will reach.

I was talking recently to a friend who pastors in the Valley. He was sharing with me some of the trials that the churches, pastors and individual Christians there live through each day. These are difficult times in the Valley. It would be easy to give up on the region. Yet this friend is excited about how God is working in the midst of the difficulties. That is the hope of Christ. That is the hope we have, the hope we can live and the hope that demands to be shared with a world that often seems hopeless.

The amazing truth of the gospel is that God is in the hope business. He can redeem broken lives, broken people and even broken situations. That is the hope we find when we trust and follow him.

Well, we have no intention of ending up in Oklahoma. Don’t get me wrong. Oklahoma is a nice state. We have clear directions and a clear goal—to share the hope of Christ with our world.

Let’s be about it.

—Steve Vernon is associate executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board.

Our nation’s political climate has been overrun with bitter and divisive commentary. Reckless incivility has overtaken public discourse in our nation, and it is a travesty.

Our children, sadly, have watched and learned from us. Spiteful rhetoric used to stigmatize opponents on immigration or gay rights has become a script for young people and children to bully and intimidate their peers.

Enough. We deserve better.

I’m adding my voice to those who call for respectful political engagement for the common good, as well as renewal of common decency in public speech. And I’m not alone.

Many Christians choose to engage public life with a hopeful spirit, one that is very different from the mean-spirited cynicism that has overtaken us. Others of us choose to act out of hope, because, I am confident, God is at work in the world for the good of everyone.

Behind much of the divisive rhetoric and the partisan posturing are perspectives that are not worthy of us as Americans. Some treat government as if it were God-forsaken unless one religious tradition and its set of moral values are imposed on people of all faiths.

Some view people whose language, culture or convictions are “different” as threats or even enemies to be overcome and controlled.

Still others present themselves as victims and engage the political process resentfully for their own self-interests and the interests of those who are most like them.

Much of the division and hostility we experience in political life flows from these kinds of perspectives. Christians whose hope and confidence come from the biblical witness, however, have a different perspective.

We recognize that government is God’s servant, as the Apostle Paul wrote in the New Testament. Regardless of the faith of the people holding public office, government and all public employees serve God’s providential care for all humankind. Even when we are convinced that government is dysfunctional and needs reform, public service remains an honorable vocation deserving of respect.

Political life should not be abandoned as hopelessly forsaken by God. We have the opportunity and the responsibility in a democracy to engage the public square with generosity and compassion. Candidates elected to public office have a responsibility to serve the common good, not privileged interests or partisan factions.

When we participate in the political process, we engage others as neighbors whom we have the opportunity and privilege to serve. Christian faith follows Jesus’ example of coming to serve, not to be served. Authentic Christian faith serves all our neighbors, both here at home and around the world.

Even when we disagree on important matters of public life, we respect our neighbors; we need not caricature their words and ideas simply to defeat them. Instead, we engage in vigorous public debate in order to preserve and strengthen the life we share with all. Even when we disagree, we must seek to find others at their best.

Christians do not—or should not—view life as a zero-sum competition, where progress can come only at the expense of others. We engage the political life of our nation, presenting ourselves as people confident in a generous God who mercifully provides for the well-being of all people. We present our best gifts, ready to endure hardship and suffering for the sake of the common good.

God has not entrusted abundant resources and gifts to us for partisan advantage, so we must use them for the good of all, for God is the God of all.

—Mark Hanson is the presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. His column was distributed by Religion News Service.

Most days of the trip consisted of physical work such as building houses, but on my third day there, I volunteered at the infirmary.

Every county in Jamaica has a government-run infirmary for mentally disabled people. Many are treated very poorly and are in some of the worst conditions I could have imagined for my brothers and sisters. The most amazing thing about these people is that they love the Lord more than anyone I ever have met. Out of everything we could have done for them during our time there, all they wanted was for us to read them Scripture. They wanted nothing more than to listen to the Bible.

In Philippians, the Apostle Paul tells us that he has “learned the secret of being content in any and every situation.” While at the infirmary, God constantly was putting this verse on my heart. There is one word in that verse that I had been missing. It says “in” every situation, not “through.” I realized that in my life I had been seeking contentment “in” my situations like where God physically has me or who I am around, instead of seeking God for it.

The people of the infirmary showed me what it was truly like to seek God for contentment. Even though they were in such a terrible physical situation, they were so in love with God, and they truly sought him for joy and happiness.

Blair Jones, a student at Tarleton State University, served with Go Now Missions in Jamaica.