Recently I listened to a podcast that highlighted the life of Amy Carmichael. Are you familiar with her?
Amy Carmichael was a missionary in the 19th century. She was born in Northern Ireland and spent almost 60 years serving in India, sans furlough. During her years of service she built an orphanage and safe house for young girls and later boys and played a major role in rescuing thousands of indian girls from the ancient practice of temple prostitution that had become normalised.
As a young girl she was told that if she prayed, the Lord would answer. She found her brown eyes to be quite unattractive and so prayed earnestly one night that God would change her eye colour from brown to blue. The next morning she excitedly looked in the mirror only to see the same brown eyes staring right back at her. She was overcome with disappointment.
Amy Carmichael's heroic and life threatening rescues as a missionary were only possible because she was able to pass as a hindu and be amongst the girls in the temple. She did this by wearing traditional indian dress and staining her skin with coffee and tea bags. Amy's naturally dark hair and brown eyes enabled her to blend in perfectly with the other girls at the temples. The brown eyes that she was born with that God did not transform to blue, equipped her to do the work that God called her to do.
We question our quirks
What are the things you find unattractive about yourself? Why do you deem them unattractive?
In today's world we all are more exposed than at any other time in history. Comparison is rife. All day, everyday we are being told either by others or our own self talk that we are not enough of one thing and too much of something else. We have developed an unhealthy fixation with identifying (what we consider to be) weaknesses and flaws and creating paths, programs and mechanisms to fix them.
The range of 'problems' is wide and deep, actual and perceived. Growing up I was always taller and bigger than everyone my age. As a result it was assumed that I was older and so I was often given additional responsibilities and chastised and ridiculed for being childish when playing with friends. My adolescent heart was bruised several times as I heard variants of "you're cute/fun/nice but too tall" from the boys I liked. I knew that praying to be shorter would prove futile and so I continued being uncomfortable standing up straight until I got to university and finally had peers I could look up to, literally. Prior to that my being tall was a shackle that brought me the wrong kind of attention and was too much for the people I wanted to attract. A great source of pain and shame.
Why couldn't God have made me a few inches shorter and smaller?
He began a good work in all of us
Years later during my time as a high school teacher, it was my height and stature that would aid me in maintaining control and building positive relationships with some of the more troublesome male students who made it a sport of trying to intimidate my smaller counterparts.
Teaching was never a lifelong dream but I know God placed me there for that particular season and used what I had been ashamed of all my life, to be an asset.
"For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." Ephesians chapter 2 verse 10
For some it is obvious what their particular strength and calling is, for others not quite.
Your headstrong son that can only be described as stubborn and never listens to you will one day become an immovable pillar in the kingdom of God. That side of yourself that you wish you could turn off because everyone says you're too emotional, is what will drive you to your knees interceding for hours on end for persons you don't know and will never meet. You're constantly being told how irresponsible you are because you don't seem to focus on the long term but you are the one who when the going gets tough are able to point everyone else to the joy and blessings present even in difficult times. You are labelled as the party pooper because of your tendency to over think but you will be the one to churn out a cornucopia of strategic plans when the time is right.
God never has to make do
"But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me." 2 Corinthians chapter 12 verse 9
Our all seeing, all powerful, all loving God knew from before the beginning of time exactly what He was pouring into each of us. Please note, I am not referring to sinful tendencies and wayward desires, that's a whole other discussion. What we consider to be our quirks, weaknesses and flaws are not obstacles that God suddenly has to navigate. These are designated areas in our natural design that God uses as an aperture through which His power can be clearly seen.
Danelle M. Pinnock first emerged as a writer when she began chronicling her journey with God, through a debilitating sickness. Her authentic reflections provided encouragement to many and resulted in her first publication “31 Day Devotional- Quiet Time.”
This full time homemaker, a proud Jamaican, lives in Kingston with her husband Raul and their two children Levi and Zhuri. Along with her freelance writing, she is a worship leader at her church and serves with her husband, a cancer survivor, on the marriage ministry team.
Visit her website, (danellempinnock.com) to learn how God guides a woman with a background in Chemistry, Business Management and Public Health to skillfully pen His methods and His ways through sickness, marriage and parenting.