We can seek out excellent biographies that allow us an intimate peek inside others’ lives, revealing their victories and their failures, their dreams and their disappointments, their desperate need and their ultimate redemption.
In Hebrews 12 we read of the great cloud of witnesses who have gone before us. Hebrews 11 names many of these witnesses whose stories are recorded in Scripture: Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham and Sarah, Joseph, Moses, Rahab, and others "of whom the world was not worthy." The canon of Scripture closed in AD 96 with John the apostle’s writing of Revelation, but there are still men and women of God who are added to the number of worthwhile examples year after year. How are we to learn of them? We can seek out excellent biographies that allow us an intimate peek inside others’ lives, revealing their victories and their failures, their dreams and their disappointments, their desperate need and their ultimate redemption. We’ll be transported to different times and places and given the opportunity to benefit from both the successes and the mistakes of others.
The Sower Series
I began reading biographies as a child growing up in a Christian home. The titles I remember best from that time come from the Sowers Series. George Washington, Robert E. Lee, and George Washington Carver were among my favorites. Another in the series that inspired me in adulthood when I was reading it aloud to my own family was the history of Teresa of Calcutta by D. Jeanne Watson. Here is the story of a woman who knew what it meant to lay down her life in service to God and others!
There is much good that we can glean from others’ experiences—wisdom that has the potential to improve the way we live our own lives. Here are just two of the lessons portrayed in Teresa’s biography: 1) When we help the needy, we are serving Christ. Mother Teresa explained, "If they die, it is not because God doesn’t care for them, but because we didn’t give. We are the tools of love in the hands of God. Give them bread, give them clothing, help heal them, and teach them. You’ll be helping Christ." 2) Whatever we do, no matter how well we do it, there will be those who scorn and those who flatter. When Mother Teresa began her work in India, naysayers declared she would never make a difference. Years later, however, admirers heaped praise upon her for what she’d been able to do! Her response to both groups was the same: "If you know who you are, then nothing will bother you, neither praise nor slander."
The Story of the Trapp Family Singers
An autobiography our family has enjoyed is that of Maria Trapp—The Story of the Trapp Family Singers. Because we love to sing together too, we had an immediate connection with the Trapps when we "met" them in the film The Sound of Music and then in the pages of her book. One of the things that most impressed me about Maria’s life was her intense desire "to know the will of God and to do it." Is that not how our Lord also lived … and died? Is that not what our goal should be every day—to use the hours we’ve been given for His glory? Seeing a modern example of another who has strived to walk faithfully after the Savior fortifies us to do the same.
Live Not By Lies
The third and final title I’ll highlight is not a biography of any one person but a modern history incorporating biographical sketches of a number of believers overseas—Live Not By Lies by Rod Dreher. Inside its covers I met the Benda family of Czechoslovakia, and my resolve was strengthened just to learn of their steadfastness in the face of communism and persecution. Parents Vaclav and Kamila believed that they must model courage for their children and teach them not to be afraid to be strange in society’s eyes. They believed in practicing hospitality and serving others, and they knew that they must fill their children’s imaginations with goodness. In addition to the Word, Kamila read a wide variety of literature to her family over the years so that their descendants would have a spiritual wealth of truth and beauty to draw from throughout life—the kind of treasures which cannot be taken away.
Guest article by Lisa E. Beal at The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Magazine.
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