book report: "To Fly Again"

I recently finished To Fly Again by Gracia Burnham. Here is a short biography found on her website.

For 17 years she and Martin served with New Tribes Mission in the Philippines where Martin was a jungle pilot delivering mail, supplies and encouragement to other missionaries and transporting sick and injured patients to medical facilities. Gracia served in various roles supporting the aviation program and also home-schooled their children--all of which were born in the Philippines.

While celebrating their 18th wedding anniversary at Dos Palmas Resort off Palawan Island, the Burnhams were kidnapped on May 27, 2001, by the Abu Sayyaf Group, a militant group of Muslims. They seized several more guests and took them to Basilan Island, an ASG stronghold.

In the ensuing months some of the hostages were killed, but most were set free. From November 2001, only the Burnhams and one other hostage remained in captivity.

During their 376 days of captivity, they faced near starvation, constant exhaustion, frequent gun battles, coldhearted murder-and intense soul-searching about a God who sometimes seemed to have forgotten them.

On June 7, 2002, in a firefight between the Philippine military and the Abu Sayyaf Group, Martin was killed. Gracia was wounded, but was freed.

This book is excellent. The subtitle is "Surviving the Tailspins of Life". She definitely has survived a major tailspin in her life when she and her husband were held hostage. She shares great perspective on how to view the situations we are faced with in life. One chapter talks about worry. She shares a story of Martin Luther:

"One morning, when he was blue and discouraged his wife appeared (clothed) in black. At Luther's inquiry as to what the mourning meant, she replied, "Haven't you heard? God is dead." Luther saw the absurdity-and so should you. God lives-so will you!"
One dictionary definition of worry is "to torment oneself with disturbing thoughts." The active verb form is interesting, isn't it? Worry is something we do to ourselves. We initiate the worrying. We torment ourselves. What we start, we can also stop. The antidote to worry, as everyone who has ever read the familiar Philippians 4:6-7 knows, is to run to the Lord. "Don't worry about anything instead pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done. If you do this, you will experience God's peace..."

What a testimony Gracia has. She was kidnapped and held hostage by terrorists and yet she and her husband were able to praise God through it all. Most of us will never face a situation like the Burnhams. I know we can't even imagine what they went through, but do you think you would react the same way? In our daily lives we do have the opportunity to show God's love to the unlovely. I pray we take the opportunities to show and share the love that God has poured out on us.