So, we’re a couple of years late, but Ryan and I finally watched The End of the Spear last night. How mind-boggling is the love of Christ that a few families gave to *strangers*!
I was particularly struck by the ways in which God used the men and the women to accomplish very different tasks in sharing His love. Even the narrator confesses to the fact that the women (from both cultures, actually) had the distinct ability to act as ambassadors; the men were far too threatening to each other. Women from both cultures had the privilege of receiving mercy, of touching, looking, and healing.
Meanwhile, the men from both cultures needed to be fierce; to explore, defend, judge, and provide. The Christian men were just as fierce as the Waodani; the only difference was that they were fierce about divine love while the Waodani were still fierce about the flesh. The Christian men willingly gave their lives as they initiated contact with this desperate people group.
Together, the men and women extended Christ’s love, transforming people who were killing each other to their extinction.
How beautiful are the differences between men and women! How wise is God’s design that each gender would seek and extend His kingdom in distinctly effective ways! This film increased my appreciation for the mystery of a man and a woman becoming one flesh.
The women in this film encouraged my femininity. I’m deeply grateful that God would choose for me to be a woman: one who may open my arms to the poor and extend my hands to the needy. I know that Ryan was equally encouraged by the men; to love God and others so fiercely that he would sacrifice his own comfort for their eternal lives.
From the woman who is struggling with lesbianism to the woman who is struggling to respect her husband in the Lord, God lovingly teaches and corrects us so that we may become the beautiful help meets that He ordained before time. May I (and you!) continue to learn from Him; to become increasingly more the women God designed us to be so that we, too, may do our good work in bringing His glory to this world.
P.S. If you were one of my students, I would require you to watch the film and listen to the Indigo Girl’s “Love’s Recovery” (another song from my college days that holds some nuggets of truth that I simply can’t forget). Your written assignment would be to reflect on the deep effect of Love.
Love’s Recovery
During the time of which I speak it was hard to turn the other cheek
To the blows of insecurity
Feeding the cancer of my intellect the blood of love soon neglected
Lay dying in the strength of its impurity
Meanwhile our friends we thought were so together
They’ve all gone and left each other in search of fairer weather
And we sit here in our storm and drink a toast
To the slim chance of love’s recovery.
There I am in younger days, star gazing,
Painting picture perfect maps of how my life and love would be
Not counting the unmarked paths of misdirection
My compass, faith in love’s perfection
I missed ten million miles of road I should have seen
Meanwhile our friends we thought were so together
Left each other one by one in search of fairer weather
And we sit here in our storm and drink a toast
To the slim chance of love’s recovery.
Rain soaked and voice choked like silent screaming in a dream
I search for our absolute distinction
Not content to bow and bent
To the whims of culture that swoop like vultures
Eating us away, eating us away
Eating us away to our extinction
Oh how I wish I were a trinity, so if I lost a part of me
I’d still have two of the same to live
But nobody gets a lifetime rehearsal, as specks of dust we’re universal
To let this love survive would be the greatest gift we could give
Tell all the friends who think they’re so together
That these are ghosts and mirages, these thoughts of fairer weather
Though it’s storming out I feel safe within the arms of love’s discovery
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