"But God knew best..."

For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. ~1 Cor. 1:25

Ave Maria!  That "Lithuanian connection" popped up again when I read Lowell Grisham's post at Speaking to the Soul today. 

I want to think a bit about Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky who is commemorated today. His is an amazing story.

A native of Lithuania, he was studying for the rabbinate when he became interested in Christianity. He moved to the U.S., eventually graduating from my seminary, the General Theological Seminary in New York City. (1859) He responded to a call for missionaries to China and learned to write Chinese during the voyage on ship. (That's remarkable.) Starting in Peking, he translated the Bible and parts of the Prayer Book into Mandarin. In 1877 he became Bishop of Shanghai and began translating the Bible into Wenli. He founded St. John's University in Shanghai. (That school is a fascinating story as well. Look it up.)

In 1883, at the age of 52, he was stricken with paralysis. For most of the rest of his life he lived in Japan where he continued his translation work, typing some 2,000 pages with the middle finger of his partially crippled hand. He lived until 1906.

Four years before his death, he said this: "I have sat in this chair over twenty years. It seemed very hard at first. But God knew best. He kept me for the work for which I am best fitted."

That quote humbles and awes me.

It humbles and awes me, too.  It makes me think of the thorn in St. Paul's flesh, in which he took pleasure for the sake of Christ because then, in his very weakness, he knew the power and strength of his Crucified and Risen Lord (2 Cor 12:10).  He is the One, St. Paul reminds us, as does Bishop Schereschewsky, who "was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God" (2 Cor 13:4) -- and so shall we if we but walk in faith the Way of the Cross with Him.

O God, in your providence you called Joseph Schereschewsky from his home in Eastern Europe to the ministry of this Church, and sent him as a missionary to China, upholding him in his infirmity, that he might translate the Holy Scriptures into languages of that land. Lead us, we pray, to commit our lives and talents to you, in the confidence that when you give your servants any work to do, you also supply the strength to do it; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. ~The Book of Common Prayer, 1979