When We Saw Your Blistered Feet

This is an inspiring, yet convicting, excerpt from John Piper's Let the Nations Be Glad. 

In 1992, I had an opportunity to hear J. Oswald Sanders speak. His message touched deeply on suffering. He was eighty-nine years old at the time and still traveled and spoke around the world. He had written one book every year since turning seventy! I mention that only to exult in the utter dedication of a life poured out for the gospel without thought of coasting in self-indulgence from sixty-five to the grave.

He told the story of an indigenous missionary who walked barefoot from village to village preaching the gospel in India. After a long day of many miles and much discouragement, he came to a certain village and tried to speak the gospel but was spurned. So he went to the edge of the village dejected and lay down under a tree and slept from exhaustion.

When he awoke, the whole town was gathered to hear him. The head man of the village explained that they had looked him over while he was sleeping. When they saw his blistered feet, they concluded that he must be a holy man and that they had been evil to reject him. They were sorry and wanted to hear the message for which he was wiling to suffer so much to bring to them. 

Corey