Daily Devotion

“The Scottish missionary Thomas Barclay (1849-1935) was sent by the Presbyterian Church of England to Taiwan in 1875 and served in Tainan for sixty years until his death. He founded Tainan Theological College in 1876, started Taiwan's first newspaper, the Taiwan Church News, printed in romanized Taiwanese, and oversaw the translation of the Bible into Taiwanese (New Testament 1916, Old Testament 1932). In 1895, as Japanese troops closed in on Tainan and its defenders prepared to fight, he went out of the city to mediate, persuading the defenders to surrender and the Japanese to refrain from reprisals.”

Wikipedia · Wikipedia, "Thomas Barclay (missionary)" (citing Edward Band, Barclay of Formosa, 1936)

Scripture

2 Corinthians 4:8-10 We are attacked on every side but not crushed; perplexed but not in despair; persecuted but not abandoned; struck down but not destroyed. Rather, we carry in our body the death of Jesus, that his life may also be shown in us.

Reflection

On the path of missionary work and daily life, setbacks and difficulties are often the truest touchstones of faith. Barclay's life reminds us that when a door seems blocked, it is not a dead end, but an invitation to kneel; as 2 Corinthians says, being attacked on all sides but not crushed is because we bear the mark of the cross of Jesus. The hardships of our circumstances cannot extinguish the light of life; rather, they strip us of our reliance on ourselves. Every seemingly stagnant moment is God sculpting our lives so that the power of Christ's resurrection and the peace from above may be fully revealed in our fragile vessels.