Plodding Along

William Carey is called the Father of Modern Day Missions. He was one of the founders of the Baptist Mission Society. They were a group of pastors and theology students who committed to work together. They committed to collect funds together to send missionaries. John Thomas and William Carey were elected to go to India.

While there, William Carey suffered extreme hardships. There were fires that destroyed his translation, his wife lost her mind, he buried children, and he was kicked out of English controlled area forcing him into the Dutch controlled Serampore. To make things more plain concerning his hardships, it was over seven years before he baptized his first convert!

Can you imagine, working for seven years without anything to show? Let’s be clear, getting conversions is not the goal of missions – the glory of God is the goal. God is glorified if people are converted or not. But let’s also be clear – God is glorified when men who are dead are made alive, when spiritually blind men are given sight.

Carey received much fame for his work in Serampore. Even today his story inspires others to follow his famous saying, “Expect great things from God. Attempt great things for God.” Don’t be fooled, Carey did amazing things. He was an absolute trailblazer. When he was reflecting on his life, he knew someone would one day write a biography about him. He told his nephew, “Eustace, if after my removal any one should think it worth his while to write my Life, I will give you a criterion by which you may judge of its correctness. If he give me credit for being a plodder he will describe me justly. Anything beyond this will be too much. I can plod. I can persevere in any definite pursuit. To this I owe everything.” What was the mark of Carey’s life? He persevered. Regardless of what difficulty came his way, he plodded through.

How could Carey plod through such difficulty? How could Carey keep his faith through trial after trial? Did he have amazing gifts? Maybe, but most linguists say he was not that gifted as a linguist. Was he a super duper Christian? Maybe, but the Holy Spirit living in him is the same in me and you. What was it?

In order for us to know the power behind Carey, we need to go look at the beginning of his mission work. Right after the forming of the Baptist Missionary Society, Carey went to each man involved and got them to commit to the work. Andrew Fuller remembers the moment this way,

“Our undertaking to India really appeared to me, on its commencement, to be somewhat like a few men, who were deliberating about the importance of penetrating into a deep mine, which had never before been explored. We had no one to guide us; and, while we were thus deliberating, Carey, as it were, said, ‘Well, I will go down if you will hold the rope.’ But, before he went down, he, as it seemed to me, took an oath from each of us at the mouth of the pit to this effect, that while we lived we should never let go the rope. You understand me. There was great responsibility attached to us who began the business.”

The strength to plodding hard ground is not in the exceptional qualities of the individual but on those petitioning God on behalf of the individual. Missions is never dependent on us. Missions is God’s work.

So seek Him. Hold the rope. If you are one of our “rope holders” thank you. If you want to become a rope holder, email us at kerrfamily@reachingandteaching.org