The touch of hand

“I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I wasin prison and you cameto visit me.”— Matthew 25:36

When Chinese authorities arrested him, Wu You-qi was an outstanding athlete. He was young and brash but not a troublemaker. Accused of being a counter-revolutionary, he was sentenced to seven years in prison. Then the Cultural Revolution broke out, and You-qi’s seven years was extended to 20 years!

Authorities placed him in China’s largest prison, in a cell with a quiet old man known as Watchman Nee. When You-qi’s wife visited him, she told him how things were on the outside. It was so bad that she even had to sell her watch to eat. When she left, You-qi lay on his bunk and sobbed.

Then You-qi felt a hand holding his. It was Watchman Nee. “Cry out,” Nee said. “You will  feel better.” That act of compassion was the beginning of the friendship of an angry young man and the godly saint who eventually died in prison. 

You-qi saw the power in the life of Watchman Nee. “I didn’t become a believer because of what he spoke,” You-qi says, “but because of how he lived.”

When I began visiting China in 1979, I would ask pastors, “How do you account for the growth of your church?” Often they replied: People saw something different about the lives of believers.

This is still true today. People want to know what makes you, a practicing Christian, different. Do you have what they lack but desperately want – joy, peace, and forgiveness? They want to see how much you care rather than how much you know. Your life is a non-verbal witness that speaks louder than what you say. Remember the elderly hand clasping that of the depressed prisoner? I think Jesus would do that as well. Don’t you?

Used with permission from Guidelines Philippines, Inc. To learn more about Guidelines and the ministry, please write to Box 4000, 1280 Makati City, Philippines or e-mail address box4000@guidelines.org. You may also visit our website at www.guidelines.org.