Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.
Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”

• Mark 12:41-44

“Beside her couch was a vintage typewriter. Each morning her faithful husband would rise, praising the Lord. After caring for his wife’s needs and feeding her a simple breakfast, he would prop her into a sitting position on the couch, placing pillows all around her so she wouldn’t topple over. Then he would move that ancient black typewriter in front of her on a small table. From an old cupboard he would remove a stack of cheap yellow paper. Then, with that blessed one finger, she would begin to type.
“All day and far into the night she would type. She translated Christian books into Russian, Latvian, and the language of her people. Always using just that one finger—peck … peck … peck—she typed out the pages. Portions of the Bible, the books of Billy Graham, Watchman Nee, and Corrie ten Boom—all came from her typewriter. That was why I was there—to thank her.
“She was hungry to hear news about these men of God she had never met, yet whose books she had so faithfully translated. We talked about Watchman Nee, who was then in a prison in China, and I told her all I knew of his life and ministry. I also told her of the wonderful ministry of Billy Graham and of the many people who were giving their lives to the Lord.
“ ‘Not only does she translate their books,’ her husband said as he hovered close by during our conversation, ‘but she prays for these men every day while she types. Sometimes it takes a long time for her finger to hit the key, or for her to get the paper in the machine, but all the time she is praying for those whose books she is working on.’
“I looked at her wasted form on the sofa, her head pulled down and her feet curled back under her body. ‘Oh, Lord, why don’t You heal her?’ I cried inwardly.
“Her husband, sensing my anguish of soul, gave the answer. ‘God has a purpose in her sickness. Every other Christian in the city is watched by the secret police. But because she has been sick so long, no one ever looks in on her. They leave us alone and she is the only person in all the city who can type quietly, undetected by the police.’ ”

• Corrie ten Boom, Tramp for the Lord

When you read the Scripture above, you might think that I am still on my focus for widows, but the widow gave all she had.  Corrie ten Boom seemed to do so, but she went to Lithuania while Lithuania was a country under USSR control.  She went to visit a woman who truly gave everything she had to spreading the Gospel.

There are two ways of looking at this quote.  I will focus on the woman, crippled, unable to lift her head, but she knew both English and Lithuanian, probably Russian also.

I have heard so many people talk about loved ones who have cancer or some other dread disease.  They keep fighting.  They keep looking for the miracle cure of medicine.  Maybe they pray for a miracle, but they have no life.  They take no trips.  Some are isolated in their homes.  Some, like my wife was, had to be near kidney dialysis centers and could only travel certain days of the week, and then short trips.

When the diseases start to take the mind away, you have a different kind of isolation.  My wife tried to stimulate her mind, but it would come and go.  But the attention span to read a novel was not there anymore.  In reading the books that she had in her bookcase, I keep finding the bookmark within the first 50 pages.  Very rarely do I see a bookmark past one hundred.

But the mind of this crippled woman was sharp.  And her calling within God’s plan was to disseminate Christian messages to other Christians in Lithuania.  And her prayer life focused on those that spread the Gospel.

How many would say that the woman’s life was wasted, just sitting there, unable to even talk.  But when she typed, it was only with one finger.  What could that slow typing rate accomplish?  A waste of time?

No.  A calling the spread the Gospel to those in desperate need.

No names were given, to protect the woman and her husband.

The other way that I could go is that if Christians do not stand up for their rights and fight back, the free world will no longer be free.  Christians in some corners of this world are not allowed to speak.  Their speech is considered hate speech when all we do is try to love our neighbors.  In some places, hate speech is punishable by fines or prison.

When does this menace spread so that we are like the Lithuanian couple, typing slowly so that no one notices to get the Gospel spread to those around us?

Lord, strengthen me.  May we have the drive, the focus, the mindset of that Lithuanian woman.  Lord, keep our minds clear so that we can spread the Gospel to those around us.  And give us the courage to do so.  In Your name I pray.  Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.