Of late, I have had the pleasure of reading a few very challenging and thought provoking books. In particular, I have been reading about August Hermann Franke, founder of the orphan house in Halle, Germany and forerunner to George Mueller. Franke founded an orphan house that has provided food and education for literally tens of thousands of students (if not more) over the past three hundred and some odd years on less than five dollars. And of course God. If he has taught me one thing, it is that the biographies of those completely sold out to God are far from boring.
Franke was a university professor and pastor who was deeply sold out to God. As a child, he requested of his mother a private study where he could read the Scriptures and pray. Later, he went to the University and studied religion. It was in the course of his studies that he came to what he called his true conversion - the beginning of his radical devotion to and faith in God. He was regularly attacked by members of the German church for being a fanatic, but it was he who brought about revival in Germany. He preached straight from the Bible, which was somewhat rare in that day (circa 1670). When he was asked to preach in Halle and be a professor at the University, he began to notice the lack of religious instruction innate in the poor, particularly the children. Being a man devoted to the work of God, this troubled him greatly and prompted him to begin collecting donations to change this. From here, it snowballed. Franke's life is one of radical dependence on God and watching God's provision come at just the right time and amount. There were times when he had upwards of a hundred orphans to care for, plus a school and other outbuildings, and not a cent to his name. But God always came through and Franke never lost his faith. He was a man of prayer and thanksgiving, a man who sought his own betterment for the sake of bring glory to the Father. Even when he was wrongly accused or reproved, he always responded with a grace that should be characteristic of every Christian.
The life of Franke has left me pondering my own. Do I have faith like that? Do I truly believe in the God of divinely orchestrated circumstances and just-in-the-nick-of-time provision? Is my faith what drives me or is it a safety net? Oh, how I long to be a woman patterned after the life of Christ. I long to have such a bold testimony to my Redeemer as Franke's life evinced. I long to live radically for Christ, to have such a strong faith in my heavenly Father. I want to believe with every fiber of my being. And I think that I do. But I also think its a growing process, and a process that cannot be truly evaluated until the time that the product is crucial. In the meantime, I pray that I can be such a witness to Christ.
Its amazing that we humans long to believe in something so deeply, to have faith in relationships or the goodness of humanity or even in themselves or security. And to believe in those things to some extent isn't necessarily a bad thing, but they should never be the end all be all of a person's faith. Because they ultimately will disappoint; relationships end, people commit heinous acts that testify to the falleness of our condition, security vanishes, and people disappoint themselves. But I believe in a God who is bigger than all my failings or the failings of this world, a God who redeemed me from my brokenness and is continually restoring me to holiness. And I rejoice in that, though not as often as I should.
But often believing in God is the most daring and courageous thing that is available. It can be a crutch, yes, but if you truly believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that He is more than just a shoulder to cry on or some sort of divine homeboy, you know that the life that He calls us to live is far from easy. It is far from a walk in the park. In Luke, He tells his disciples that those who are persecuted, hungry, poor, and mourn are the ones who are truly blessed because of the reward they may expect in the life to come. He continues this dialogue by proclaiming that the rich, the well fed, the ones who laugh and are esteemed have received their reward in full. Honestly, that is a challenging passage. Is God calling His people to put themselves in the way of poverty and famine simply for the promise of a castle in heaven? I don't think so. But somehow I think such things are woven into the Christian life. I think we find ourselves constantly bombarded by people who are in those conditions or living dangerously close to them. I think we ourselves must be willing to be in those circumstances if they should befall them. I think that we must always chose Christ over laughter, riches, or even a piece of bread. I don't have it all figured out yet. I'm wrestling with extrapolating this from the American Christianity we have so blindly adopted and mixed with the Gospel.
But I do want a deep faith, a faith so strong that the foundations of it can move mountains and make the devil shudder and enable joy and contentment in every circumstance.
If you are interested in Franke's work, here is the present day website of the school he began. How amazing it is that this project, started with $3.50, is still alive and well today, educating thousands??
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://www.francke-halle.de/&ei=YL1CTuT_MOStsALA09XCCQ&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDoQ7gEwAA&prev=/search%3Fq%3DFranckesche%2BStiftungen%2Bzu%2BHalle%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG%26tbo%3D1%26tbm%3Dbks
