A Trail of Blood

My heart thuds and my palms fill with sweat as I sit on the hard church pew, watching a video about Sarah, the editor of a Chinese Christian newspaper. One night, soldiers seize Sarah from her home, drag her to an abandoned warehouse, and beat her severely. While Sarah screams in agony, the soldiers mercilessly burn her with a cigarette butt and force her to spend the night in chains, shuffling around the warehouse, leaving behind a trail of blood. Sarah endures six years of imprisonment in a dark and lonely cell, forced to manufacture American Christmas tree lights, “Christian” baubles made by a persecuted Christian.

In America, we joyfully string Sarah’s lights on our trees to celebrate Christ’s birth. In China, Sarah sits in a lonely prison cell, humbly thanking her Savior for leaving a trail of blood, much like her own, on His way to die on the cross.

This is the kind of faith I want. The kind of faith that astonisheds people: “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13).

Yet how often do I hesitate to share the gospel with my friends, for fear they’ll think less of me? And how often would I rather sleep in an hour later than get up to read my Bible? And how often do I want to stay home and finish my homework rather than go to youth group?

In myself, I can’t live a Sarah kind of life. In myself, I don’t have the strength to endure such pain and still praise God. And in myself, I certainly can’t astonish people with my boldness. Yet:

It really is an astounding truth that the Spirit of Him who raised us from the dead lives in you. He lives in me. I do not know what the Spirit will do or where He’ll lead me each time I invite Him to guide me. But I am tired of living in a way that looks exactly like people who do not have the Holy Spirit of God living in them. I want to consistently live with an awareness of His strength. I want to be different today from what I was yesterday as the fruit of the Spirit becomes more manifest in me.

~Francis Chan, Forgotten God

God lives in us!! You and I probably won’t be seized from our homes tonight and brutally tortured. Yet, shouldn’t people be astounded by evidence of the Spirit in Christians,  not just when we make trails of blood on warehouse floors, but when we make history projects or make dinner?  

“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price” (1 Cor. 6:19-20).

[Sarah's video--Disclaimer: this is an incredibly poignant video, but if you watch it, prepare to be horrified at the hideous torture this brave young woman endures. ]