{"id":30501,"date":"2023-01-26T17:37:47","date_gmt":"2023-01-27T01:37:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=30501"},"modified":"2023-01-29T06:13:18","modified_gmt":"2023-01-29T14:13:18","slug":"make-me-thy-fuel-o-flame-of-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/make-me-thy-fuel-o-flame-of-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Make Me Thy Fuel O Flame Of God"},"content":{"rendered":"

This book, Failure of Nerve<\/em>, by Edwin Friedman, was compiled from writings ten years after the author had passed away. It was Friedman’s opinion in these writings that under pressure, most leaders will give in to the weakest member of the organization because of fear of retaliation. [1] Their giving in to these people causes the links in the chain of leadership to be frail. This is where the title, “failure of nerve” originated.<\/p>\n

When I think of Christian leaders who had this type of nerve to take a stand no matter what, Amy Carmichael comes to mind. You may not be familiar with her. She was an Irish missionary in India for 55 years, and wrote 35 books while there. She never took a furlough back home! When she was a small child, she prayed and asked God to change her eye color from brown to blue. Really believing He would hear and answer her prayer, she slept anxiously awaiting her new blue eyes in the morning. She was so disappointed to wake to the same old brown ones. Later, she felt Him speak to her heart that “no” is also an answer to prayer. It would be many years later that she would find a dire need for brown eyes in her service for the Lord and His kingdom.<\/p>\n

A Capacity to Get Outside the Emotional Climate of the Day<\/strong><\/p>\n

Friedman talks about the need for clarity and decisiveness. [2] Amy Carmichael devoted her life to rescuing orphaned children in India, primarily girls, and began a safe-haven for them she named Donovan. At one time she had over 1,000 children living with her as her own children. At a moment’s notice she made decisions to rescue these children and incorporate them into life in Donovan.<\/p>\n

Willingness to Be Exposed and Vulnerable<\/strong><\/p>\n

You have to take risks to be this type of a leader. [3] You must make yourself vulnerable. [4] This is exactly what Amy Carmichael did time and again. She would hear about orphan children being sold as temple prostitutes. Her heart would break for these children and she would want to rescue them. So she would dress as a local Indian woman in a traditional sari, using coffee to dye her skin a bit. Since her eyes were already brown, no one paid her any attention. She would go in and out of the temples unhindered, with easy access to the children. Once they were safely at Donovan, they would be free.<\/p>\n

Persistence in the Face of Resistance and Rejection\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

When you have nerve as a leader, you have to not care what people think. You have to be willing to take a stand at all costs. You must even be willing to take a stand at your own cost. Amy Carmichael did just that, time and again. People from the temples hated her because she rescued so many of the children from their midst. They had purchased these children from poor, struggling families. Therefore the temples were losing money and they didn’t like it. They didn’t like Amy. But Amy was defiant in the face of opposition.<\/p>\n

Stamina in the Face of Sabotage<\/strong><\/p>\n

Particularly in the early years, much was done to try to stop Amy Carmichael in her efforts to rescue the temple children. However, she pressed on. She had a calling and a vision. And God had given her strength to proceed.<\/p>\n

Perception as Being Headstrong<\/strong><\/p>\n

I mentioned earlier that in 55 years in India, Amy Carmichael never went on a furlough. It is customary, even in those days, every 4-8 years or so for missionaries to go on a furlough. However, Amy did not want to leave her station or her children. Her family kept growing and the work increasing. In the later years, she fell and injured herself so terribly that she became bedridden for the last 19 years of her life. It was during this time that she wrote most of her books. They started out as letters and writings to her family from her bed and later were published. In her early years she had written:<\/p>\n

“Let me not sink to be a clod, make me thy fuel O flame of God.” [5]<\/p>\n

She was so concerned about becoming a burden on others later in life. She just wanted to die suddenly. That wasn’t what God intended though. Thankfully for the rest of us, her pain and time of being bedridden left us a beautiful legacy of her leadership and service that we would otherwise not have today. [6]<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

______________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n

[1] Friedman, Edwin. 2017. A Failure of Nerve<\/i>. 10th ed. New York, NY: Church Publishing.<\/p>\n

[2] Ibid<\/p>\n

[3] Ibid<\/p>\n

[4] Ibid<\/p>\n

[5] Carmichael, Amy. 2003. If<\/i>. Fort Washington, PA: CLC Publications.<\/p>\n

[6] Elliot, Elisabeth. 1994. A Chance to Die: The Life and Legacy of Amy Carmichael<\/i>. Carlisle: OM Pub.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This book, Failure of Nerve, by Edwin Friedman, was compiled from writings ten years after the author had passed away. It was Friedman’s opinion in these writings that under pressure, most leaders will give in to the weakest member of the organization because of fear of retaliation. [1] Their giving in to these people causes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":159,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[2554,681,236],"class_list":["post-30501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biography-drama-history","tag-amy-carmichael","tag-failure-of-nerve","tag-friedman","cohort-dlgp01"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/159"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30501"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30510,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30501\/revisions\/30510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}