John G. Paton’s father
The key to your courage
- John G.
- Paton was a missionary in the New Hebrides Archipelago.
- Now called Vanuatu.
- In the Southeast Pacific.
- Born in Scotland in 1824.
- Writing about him for the courage he showed during his eighty-two years of life.
- I want to be courageous in the cause of Christ.
- That’s why I meditate on the value of others.
- Where did it come from? When I try to find out why John Paton was so brave.
- One of the reasons I find is the deep love he had for his father.
John Paton’s tribute to his pious father is already worth the price of his Autobiography (which is still being printed). Maybe because I have four children (and Thalita), I cried when I read this part of John Paton’s autobiography. the desire to be a father like that.
There was a small room where John Paton’s father prayed, as a rule, after each meal. The eleven children knew this place, respected it, and learned something profound about God. The impact on John Paton has been immense.
Even if an unspeakable catastrophe could banish from my memory everything related to religion (and such things were erased from my understanding), my soul would still remember these old scenes; he locked himself in the Little Sanctuary and, listening to the echoes of these cries to God, resisted all doubts with the victorious call: “I walked with God, why not me?”
I cannot explain how impressed I was at the time by my father’s prayers; no stranger could understand it. When, on his knees, with all kneeling around him, in family worship, he shed his whole soul, with tears, for the conversion of the pagan world to the worship of Jesus, as well as for personal and family needs, we all feel as if we were in the presence of the living Savior and came to know him and love him as our divine friend.
One of the scenes better illustrates the love between John Paton and his father and the power of impact on John’s life of uncompromising courage and purity. The time has come when, at the age of twenty, young John Paton left home to glasgow to study theology and become an urban missionary. From his home in Torthorwald to Kilmarnock station, there was a 78-kilometre journey. Forty years later, Paton wrote:
My dear father walked with me for the first ten kilometers of the journey, your advice, your tears and your spiritual conversation on this journey of departure are still alive in my heart, as if they had been pronounced yesterday, and tears run down my face as freely as that day, every time the memory takes me to this scene. In the last kilometer of this part of the journey, do we walk together in uninterrupted silence ?, my father, according to his custom, wore his hat in his hand, while his long blond hair (in that blond moment, but in his old years, white as snow) slid over his shoulders, his lips moved in a silent prayer in my name and his tears sprouted immediately when our eyes looked at each other immediately when our eyes looked at , in the eyes that all the words were in vain!We stopped at the farewell point. He held my hand firmly, for a minute, silently, and said solemnly and affectionately, “God bless you, my son!May the God of your Father prosper you and save you from all evil!”
Unable to say anything else, her lips continued to move in silent prayer. Crying, we kiss and leave. I ran as fast as I could and as I was about to round a bend in the road where he lost sight of me, I turned around and saw him still standing with his head off his hat. Where did I leave it? glaring at me. Waving my hat in goodbye, I headed around the bend and stood out of sight for a moment. My heart, however, was too overwhelmed and I felt that I could continue; So I ran to the side of the road and cried for a while. Then cautiously getting up, I climbed a ravine to see if it was still where I had left it. And at that precise moment, I saw him climb up the shore, look for me! He did not see me; and after searching carefully for me, for a few moments, he walked along the shore, stared at the house, and began to enter. with his head still uncovered and his heart, he was sure, getting up to pray for me. I saw it through my tears until its shape disappeared from my eyes. Then hurrying down the road, I voted, sincerely and over and over again, that with God’s help, I would never cry or dishonor a father and mother like the ones he gave me. .
The impact of John Paton’s father’s prayers, faith, love, and discipline was incalculable. Let each father read these words and be filled with desire and firm determination to love in this way.
Excerpt from the book: Penetrado pela Palavra, by John Piper Copyright: © Editora FIEL 2009 The reader is authorized to disseminate and distribute this text, provided that it does not change its format, content and / or translation and report the credits of both authors, such as translation and copyright. If in doubt, please contact Editora Fiel.