“Lord, why do I have to be put in such situations as this?”[1] prayed Isobel Kuhn silently.
Hitchhiking in World War II China
The year was 1940, and World War II had interrupted Isobel Kuhn’s life in the remote southwestern corner of China. The Japanese invaders wrecked havoc with transportation, stranding the Kuhn’s young daughter Kathryn in her boarding school nearly 2,000 miles away in northeastern China. Her mother had not seen Kathryn for over a year, and she determined to bring her daughter home. Kuhn’s only hope of crossing China was hitchhiking on transport trucks. As she jostled over rough roads beside odorous drivers, Kuhn quietly poured her heart out to the Lord.[2]
Pandemic Disruptions
Today, our lives have been interrupted. The pandemic and its aftermath have upended our plans. I am so glad I did not succumb to the urge to cast a “2020 vision” for this year. No one could have foreseen the upheaval that has occurred.
At times, anger and frustration have plagued every one of us. Our plans have been thwarted. Our freedoms curtailed. Our style cramped. Our way of life altered.
Yet interruptions—even life-altering intrusions—are a normal part of the history of mankind. Floods, famines, wars, and pandemics have punctuated the lives of our predecessors. How did Christians of the past respond? How should we today?
A Biblical Response to Emulate
In times like these, Isobel Kuhn turned to God and His Word. She wrote, “Once quietly installed in the truck, I talked in my heart to Him who has always been my refuge. ‘Lord, why do I have to be put in such situations as this?’ And immediately the words came: For I think that God hath set forth us . . . last . . . for we are made a spectacle unto the world (1 Cor. 4:9 KJV).”[3]
Picturing the apostle Paul standing alone in a Roman arena surrounded by crowds sadistically anticipating his encounter with a lion, Kuhn continued: “Through the several years which followed, years of war strain and danger, this thought kept returning to me. The different trials of us Christians of the twentieth century are like so many platforms in the world’s Arena of today. The unbeliever looks on at our struggles and is only impressed or influenced if he sees the power of God working there. The purpose of the Arena experience is not for our punishment; it is that God might be revealed.”[4]
The Upside: God’s Glory
How is God being revealed through the interruptions in my life? What are others seeing in me as I respond to the pandemic and its aftermath? Do they see the power of God? How is my response different from the unbelieving world around me?[5]
In a related post, see how John Paton, missionary to Vanuatu, benefited from the pandemic in his day. http://rootedthinking.com/2020/08/04/the-pandemic-my-teacher/
[1] Isobel Kuhn, In the Arena (Singapore: OMF International, 1995), preface.
[2] Read more about Kuhn’s testimony in my book, Daring Devotion: A 31-Day Journey with those who Lived God’s Promises. (available in October 2020)
[3] Kuhn, preface.
[4] Kuhn, preface.
[5] Matthew 5:13–16 “Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. 14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. 15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”
