At times I, too, have been more tempted to revolution than to prayer. Yet, as they gathered in the upper room, remembering how Jesus had answered them, instead of waging revolution they prayed. When I was arrested in China during the revolution there, I wondered what was going to happen to me. During that time, the knowledge that Christians were praying for me encouraged and sustained me far more than any hope I might have had that another revolution, a counter-revolution, would come and make everything all right. Here is the paradox.
Revolutions make the headlines.
But the world has forgotten about the plot against Tiberias that set tongues wagging in Jerusalem while the disciples prayed. The world has forgotten the border raids across the Rhine. But the world has never forgotten that credulous, leaderless, outcast little band which trudged down the hill into Jerusalem-and took time to pray. There was a time in Korea, about 80 years ago, when missionaries and Korean Christians were so discouraged about the prospects for the future of the church there that they began to wonder if their 20 years of pioneering ministry had been all in vain. The country was losing its independence to the Japanese.