Friday, July 18, 2003
Friday, July 18, 2003
All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us
the ministry of reconciliation.
The Christian was beside himself with rage. Not knowing where else to turn, he took his
complaint to God. The Lord, hearing his prayer, gave him an answer. The next morning the
Christian arose much earlier and started pumping water into the field of his communist neighbor.
Then he replaced the boards and pumped water into his own rice paddy. In a few weeks both
fields of rice were doing well. Not only that, his communist neighbor came to Christ.
That is how it is done. We seek reconciliation. If that doesn't work, and sometimes it doesn't,
then we turn the situation over to God. We pray, "Lord, I've done all I can. I've tried to make
things right. Nothing has worked. Now it's up to you."
(2 Corinthians 5.18
NRSV)
Watchman Nee tells the story of a Chinese Christian who owned a rice paddy. His neighbor was
a communist. To irrigate his rice paddy, the Christian pumped water manually out of a nearby
canal. Each day, after the Christian had pumped enough water to fill his field, the communist
would come out and remove some boards that kept the water in the Christian's field. In this way
he flooded his own field without having to do any work.
Lord Jesus, guide me in seeking reconciliation. Amen.
