Thursday, November 1, 2007

Whoever would have imagined that emptiness can be the most permeating feeling ever?

Fasting today was not a good idea, and by lunch-time I had to break down and eat. Dizziness while scrubbing, scraping and sanding nasty bathroom walls is not a desirable effect. I emerged for lunch, covered in white flecks and water spots, but triumphant—at least partially. Tomorrow I will have to finish the sanding, patch some spots near the floor and hopefully paint the whole thing mint green! Then I won’t have to worry about toothpaste being splattered on the walls.

My routine mail-check produced a Voice of the Martyrs magazine today, and I was struck by the story of an Indonesian woman, aged 24. As a teenager she had discovered the Bible and treasured it, believing in Jesus and choosing to obey through baptism. She was married (by arrangement) to a Muslim man, who beat her for her faith. Instead of allowing the persecution to daunt her, she began to reach out to other women. Already she has baptized fifteen, and has another group wanting to be baptized.

And I am afraid of what fat American people will think.

Lord, my own devotion pales

Beside my foreign sister’s tales

How can I, when fat and fed

So well-treated, so well-fed

Find Thy treasure of such worth

As to desecrate new birth

By pretending there’s no change.

Lord, my sister’d find it strange.