No one doubts that the events of the past year, and particularly those of September 11, are unique in the history of America. Those events are even comparable to some other dark days of world history. Not only the human toll of the attacks themselves must be considered, but also the change in the world view that careened from it.

A Christian by now has to have paused to consider, though, that what comes as a surprise and shock to us is not surprising to God nor divergent from what He told us to expect. This world is passing away. The existence of untold evil in people serves as the backdrop for our precise mission on this planet.

For a sense of perspective, who better to turn to than those who have witnessed some great tragedies and upheavals in the past, weathering the wicked storms and gaining the understanding that comes from experience.

In God’s abundant grace, we had many such people from which to choose. The Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America is blessed with many who have labored through dangers and hardships on mission fields. We have many who have known the horror of war. We have many who endured the losses of loved ones or who are even now coping with life-and-death matters. We have the living testimony of those who have gone before us, from Scottish Covenanters to righteous fathers and mothers in the faith who have recently passed on to glory.

For the sake of space, we talked with just a couple of people for this issue of the Witness, people who have known danger, people who have watched nations and individuals go through hard times, people who know what it is like to live one’s Iife before the Lord. You might want to just conduct some interviews of your own, bringing up some of these same issues. When have you felt your life was in danger? When your nation has been in crisis before, how did people respond? How did you respond? What did you learn? How has it affected your walk with God?

Truly, we would like to see big events in the world more as God sees them. We would like to have our fingers on the pulse of the spiritual rather than being tempting to focus just on the visible.

One thing that stood out from my interview with Evalyn Hays, missionary to Syria, is that even when we can’t grasp things as God does, our faith carries us through until that day when we can. She seemed not to be so concerned with what God was doing as how she could obey Him with her heart, soul, mind, and strength, without regard to the personal cost. She did not need to know the big picture, as long as she knew the Person she followed.