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Fresh perspective
Jeff Iorg
March 10, 2017
2 MIN READ TIME

Fresh perspective

Fresh perspective
Jeff Iorg
March 10, 2017

I met a young woman at a recent event who told me her story which left me in awe of her courage. Here’s what she has packed into the past few years.

She grew up in an Asian country, the daughter of working-class parents who did menial jobs to provide for their family. She showed academic promise, so her parents sacrificed to keep her in school – all the way through graduate school.

Jeff Iorg

As a college student, she became a Christian and started attending a church. Soon, she was picked up by the authorities and given an option – spy for them on other Christians or be expelled from the country. She refused and prepared to be exiled.

While in the university, she had fallen in love with a young missionary from the United States – an Asian (but different ethnicity) who had been adopted by an American family. They decided to get married and moved to the United States (a very complicated process).

After they had been in the U.S. for a few months, her husband was diagnosed with cancer and died after a short illness. Now in her late 20s, she is a widow, living in a new country, far from her family and going back to school to earn American educational credentials.

When she finished telling me her story, she concluded, “God has been so good to me.” Seriously, that’s what she said.

Compared to this young woman, my life has been a walk in the park down a primrose path paved with hundred dollar bills. Her story jolted me to a new level of gratitude and appreciation for God’s blessings.

What about you? Got a poor me attitude? Get over it by focusing on how good God has been to you. Let my new friend’s story give you fresh perspective on what it means to trust God and celebrate His blessings.

(EDITOR’S NOTE – Jeff Iorg is president of Gateway Seminary of the Southern Baptist Convention. This column first appeared on the seminary’s website at gs.edu/gateway-blog. Used with permission.)