DAVID LIVINGSTONE – A LIFE WELL LIVED!

There would be very few Christians who haven’t heard, or wouldn’t know about David Livingstone, the great Scottish missionary-explorer to Africa. His life had inspired a generation of people to take up missions. He also had contributed his might, to end the slave trade in Africa.

James Montgomery Boice, writing about Livingstone, reminds us of a very interesting point – “David Livingstone, the famous missionary and explorer of the continent of Africa, read Psalm 121 and Psalm 135, which praises God for his sovereign rule over all things, as he worshiped with his father and sister before setting out for Africa in 1840. His mother-in-law, Mrs. Moffat, wrote him at Linyardi that Psalm 121 was always in her mind as she thought about and prayed for him.” This give us an insight into how Livingstone looked at God.

Encyclopaedia Britannica describes the achievements of David Livingstone in these words – “Livingstone produced a complex body of knowledge—geographic, technical, medical, and social—that took decades to mine. In his lifetime he stirred the imagination of English-speaking peoples everywhere and was celebrated as one of the great figures of British civilisation.”

David Livingstone’s tomb stone reads, “BROUGHT BY FAITHFUL HANDS OVER LAND AND SEA, HERE RESTS DAVID LIVINGSTONE, MISSIONARY, TRAVELLER, PHILANTHROPIST…FOR 30 YEARS, HIS LIFE WAS SPENT IN AN UNWEARIED EFFORT TO EVANGELIZE THE NATIVE RACES, TO EXPLORE THE UNDISCOVERED SECRETS, TO ABOLISH THE DESOLATING SLAVE TRADE, OF CENTRAL AFRICA, WHERE WITH HIS LAST WORDS HE WROTE, “ALL I CAN ADD IN MY SOLITUDE IS, MAY HEAVEN’S RICH BLESSING COME DOWN ON EVERYONE, AMERICAN, ENGLISH, OR TURK, WHO WILL HELP TO HEAL THIS OPEN SORE OF THE WORLD.” What a summing up of a life that lived a mere sixty years; of which, thirty full years were spent as a missionary in a ‘dark’ and distant land.

With all his personality flaws, if we can call them so, Livingstone served His LORD ever so faithfully, with unwavering commitment and dedication. How is our life being spent? Is the kingdom of God richer because of us and our life? What are we contributing to the work of the LORD, who unasked, laid His life as a ransom, to redeem us from total annihilation? How much of our life is already spent? How much of our life is still left? How much of what is left, can be actually put to some good use for our LORD? It is worth it to live for God, and be a blessing to His kingdom.