WHY
This little word, "WHY," faced me many months before the willingness came to attempt the writing of these memories.
Why indeed should any further record of my life be made, for in How I Know GOD Answers Prayer and also in Goforth of China not a little of my life experiences have been given. Therefore, a brief statement is fitting as to how or why this personal story came to be written.
For years previous to my husband's death, and, to my surprise, increasingly so after his "life" appeared, requests reached me urging that I write something of my own life, my struggles, yes, and overcomings - something that might help others facing life's hard problems.
For months, even years, I persistently turned these requests down. Then, about eighteen months ago, when several letters reached me from people and places far distant from each other, all containing the same urging, I began seriously to wonder, "Is this thing of GOD?"
In a very uncertain way, I began to write down visions of the past as they came. I realize keenly how imperfect is the record - scrappy, disconnected, and entirely incomplete, for the half of the Lord's mercies can never be told. I am too old to rewrite, so, such as it is, the story is now sent forth with the hope that He who has sustained in the writing will use it to help other climbers up life's hillside.
CALL BACK!
If you have gone a little way ahead of me, call back;
'Twill cheer my heart and help my feet along the stony track;
And if, perchance, Faith's light is dim, because the oil is low,
Your call will guide my lagging course as wearily I go.
Call back, and tell me that He went with you into the storm;
Call back, and say He kept you when the forest's roots were torn;
That when the heavens thundered and the earthquake shook the hill,
He bore you up and held you where the very air was still.
O friend, call back and tell me, for I cannot see your face;
They say it glows with triumph, and your feet bound in the race;
But there are mists between us, and my spirit eyes are dim,
And I cannot see the glory, though I long for word of Him.
But if you'll say He heard you when your prayer was but a cry,
And if you'll say He saw you through the night's sin-darkened sky
If you have gone a little way ahead, O friend, call back
'Twill cheer my heart and help my feet along the stony track.
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