The unpredictable Yuqui man suddenly slipped one hand behind the missionary's neck and with the other, jammed his thumb and fingers deep into either side of the larynx and squeezed -- hard. Bruce Porterfield choked desperately and couldn't breathe.
"The pressure built up in my head," he wrote of the incident in his book Commandos for Christ. "My heart seemed to be hammering away in my neck. My lungs wanted to inhale so badly they seemed about to cave in. I began to black out. I said to myself, 'Lord, I commend my soul into Your hands.'"
It was 1957. NTM missionaries were attempting a dangerous contact with the Yuqui tribe deep in Bolivia's "Green Hell." It was the same jungle that had gobbled up our first five missionaries, which, contrary to all human understanding, had actually fueled the fire for more to come. And that's why Bruce was there -- having his life choked out of him.
And we can relate. We start out with such high hopes, good motives, and pure hearts. Then it seems like someone or something grabs us by the jugular and tries to stifle our life away. Sometimes, we even choke ourselves.
But as Bruce reminds us, "Our accounting to God is for faithfulness, not for results." For better or for worse, we have to keep on going. And these missionaries did.
Still shaking inwardly from the frightening experience and with throats so sore they could barely swallow, the missionaries tried to appear nonchalant as they hiked along -- hoping and praying for no more "surprises."
But there were.
Now the tribal men decided to use them for target practice. They thought it was great fun to see how close their arrows could come without actually hitting the missionaries. Nerves already strained, were now stretched beyond recognition.
But when one man lost his arrow in the bushes and the others stopped to help him find it, the missionaries saw their opportunity -- and stopped to help too. That is faithfulness. And the almost deadly contact resulted in new life among the Yuqui people many years later.
No matter which side of the ocean we live on, or how good our dreams, goals and intentions, life can still sneak up anywhere and leave us all gasping for breath.
What began as such a wonderful adventure into marriage, friendship, parenting, a business opportunity, education or ministry, now begins to feel like one big bite that just won't go down.
We often choke ourselves with the cold, clammy fingers of doubt and uncertainty, smother in our own critical, negative attitudes or those of others, suffocate our character at the altar of money, strangle on mounting fears and emotions, gag from the consequences of unwise, worldly decisions and stifle our most precious relationships.
But we are choking in good company.
Abraham, Moses, Sarah, Gideon, David, and Peter -- just to name a few -- all choked at some point in their lives. But they kept on going, kept on believing and kept on seeing miracles as a result.
Because they were able to "dig deep" into the God who called them and were faithful to the journey He called them to, He moved ahead of them and easily swept aside obstructions that blocked their way.
He reversed infertility, birthed a nation, parted a sea, defeated an army, secured a kingdom, and built a church. And He is still capable of handling the obstacles He places in our paths today -- and relishes the opportunity.
A few years ago, we knew a young couple who was very excited about entering the NTM missionary training program. Two weeks after they were already supposed to be there, we were surprised to see them still in town.
They explained that right before they left, their car had broken down and so they knew it was a "sign" from God that they weren't supposed to go. My husband and I choked inwardly as they shared their story.
Later, I thought about their perception that difficulties on the road meant discontinue the trip. And I wondered how Paul could have missed all of his "signs."
He was not only shipwrecked, beaten multiple times and tossed in jail, but at one point, after being stoned, dragged outside the city and left for dead, he actually got up and went back inside the town to finish up. That is faithfulness.
He knew that a Road Closed sign is accompanied by a Follow Detour, not a Give Up On Your Destination. He faithfully followed many detours and yet still arrived exactly where God wanted him.
But as Paul can attest, the scariest choking encounters of all involve relationships. We stand toe-to-toe with the people that matter most, the ones that we are technically on the "same team" with, and without fully realizing it or meaning to, we slowly squeeze each others lives away.
Yet faithfulness to our journey also includes allowing others to be faithful to theirs. And that involves everyone being able to breathe.
So if you accidentally find your fingers around someone else's throat, let go. No matter how strange, different or annoying our co-worker, fellow believer, tribal person, neighbor, boss or even our own spouse or teenager may seem to be, they still have something to give, something to add, something to offer or God wouldn't have put them in our life in the first place. Trust His judgment -- before you end up with a dangling corpse.
How many skeletons are we planning to shove into our closet anyway? Some of us already have to force the door shut and stick a chair under the knob. And bigger closets are not the answer.
Whether in the wilds of the jungle or the quiet chaos of suburbia, choking episodes are a fact of life. But God says that His plans cannot be thwarted.
In the midst of all the neck grabbing, He is still moving ahead, clearing the way and accomplishing everything He has set out to do from the beginning of eternity. And nothing can ever smother, suffocate, strangle, gag or stifle the work he has begun in our lives and promises to finish.
Just when we think we're drawing our last, He'll breathe His own precious air into every passageway of our being -- and ask us to keep going. So don't give up. As others have discovered before us, faithfulness to the journey and to the people that God has put in our lives becomes the lifesaving maneuver that changes everything.
So plunge into the bushes -- and help find some arrows.
Disclaimer: This personal ministry website is provided by New Tribes Mission (NTM) as a courtesy to its members. NTM makes no warranty regarding the accuracy of the information on these pages. Opinions expressed are provided by members in good faith, but are entirely those of the member and do not necessarily represent policy, doctrinal position, or opinions of NTM. If you encounter information that you consider questionable, please e-mail the NTM web team.
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