From Good Morning, Lord by Sheila Walsh
Today I will not hide my faith; help me to show it not only with words but with actions too.
Did you know that artist Vincent Van Gogh was an evangelist early in his life? His mission organization sent him to a region in Belgium where the coal miners lived in desperate poverty. Van Gogh was provided with a nice house, but when he saw the shacks the miners were living in, he found it impossible to live in his much finer quarters. He probably told himself, If I’m going to reach them, I’m going to live as one of them. So he moved into a horrible shack, wore virtually nothing but a sack, and began to hold meetings. Eventually, people began to come to his meetings, and for six months he had an incredible impact in that area. Unfortunately, the head of his mission board visited. When he saw how Van Gogh was living—as one of the poor and downtrodden—the man was so disgusted with Van Gogh that he fired him.
Van Gogh had to leave the people he was trying to help, but they never forgot his sermons, which included statements like “For those who believe in Jesus Christ, there is no sorrow that is not mixed with hope.” Van Gogh also said, “It’s an old belief and a good one that we are strangers on earth, yet we are not alone, for our Father is with us.”*
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