Would You Dare? teaser

Would I Dare? (introduction)

Why do some people seem to have what it takes to makea mark on the world? did these people just "get all the breaks?" Are they the ones who are specially gifted or intelligent? do heroes possess an extra measure of courage? Probably you have dreamed of doing something really worthwhile with your life; I have. Whenever I read a thrilling biography of someone famous, or someone who did great things for the Lord, I spend some restless hours wishing that I could be like that wonderful person. Sometimes I realize that the time and place had a great deal to do with the person's actions– I can't be a Corrie TenBoom, because there are now no German Concentration Camps to survive. You can't be a John Bunyan, who wrote Pilgrim's Progress out of the spiritual growth he experienced while imprisoned 12 years in a damp cell. (His crime?-- not attending services in the Established Church.) But I can be a Joan Young. And you can be a ________________________________ (fill in your name). This is what God asks us to be– to dare to be!

A Jewish teacher, named Golden, wisely said when he was feeling depressed, "God will never ask me why I was not Moses, but He will ask me why I was not Rabbi Golden." So this collection of brief biographies is not intended to intimidate. True, the people described here have accomplished many remarkable things. To cram the story of a life into six or eight pages creates an atmosphere of overwhelming goodness and action. Real life for them, as well as for us, consisted of slow days, days of discouragement, days of illness, days of frustration, in addition to the days of inspiration, activity and accomplishment. Also, I have to admit that it takes more than circumstances to create someone we may call a hero. Many people died in concentration camps and prisons without ever becoming monuments to courage and forgiveness, or writers of ageless stories. Each of the people we call "great Christians" made a decision to dare to be who God had made them. It is my hope that you will read these chapters, because they are not long. Unless we know of people who dared, we may not believe that we too could dare. If you finish this book with the feeling, "Oh, I could never be like those great people," then I have failed in my purpose. We all can dare to be the person God asks us to be, if we only will. If we will, then God supplies the "greatness." This book tells the stories of some who dared.

Typhoon Lil (beginning of chapter 1)

     WOULD YOU DARE to cross a rope bridge that was swaying above a swollen river, during a typhoon? What if the bridge had some of its planks missing, leaving holes you would have to jump across? Would you do it if you were a middle-aged lady who stood barely five feet tall? Lillian Dickson dared, and she did it more than once!

     Actually, Lillian wondered if she dared as she stared down at the roaring, gray water. Boulders were even being swept along in the current, and, on this day, everyone had told her that all the ways to return to Taipei were impassable. It looked as if they were right. This bridge wasn't even supposed to be swinging. It had been a railroad bridge, but now the supporting trestle had washed away leaving only the steel rails, with wooden ties clinging to their undersides. If one important spike should pull out under their weight... By looking ahead, Lillian could see that some of the ties had already lost their hold, and had slipped away to a thunderous, splintering end.
     "If you want to reach the city, this is the only way", the Tyal guide patiently explained, as she hesitated.
     "Can I do this, Lord?" Lillian prayed. And the answer came in the words of a hymn: "When He says `Follow Me,' I am no longer small." She dared, not because she was brave, but because she knew that God wanted her in Taipei for the opening of school.
     Needless to say, her husband was astonished at her appearance three days later (after more bridges and other rugged experiences), in time for school's beginning. "I told you I'd be here, didn't I?" was Lil's brief explanation!

     Who is this lady, nicknamed "Typhoon Lil," or the one with the "Angel at her Shoulder?"

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