The Cobbler Who Refused to Sit Down

In 1786, a twenty-five-year-old cobbler named William Carey stood before a gathering of seasoned Baptist ministers in Northampton, England. He posed a simple question: Did the Great Commission still apply? Should they not send missionaries to unreached peoples?

An older minister reportedly shot back, "Sit down, young man! When God pleases to convert the heathen, He will do it without your aid or mine."

Carey sat down. But he could not silence what the Almighty had already stirred within him. In his cramped shoe shop, he had stitched together a leather globe from scraps, marking countries and populations, praying over each one. He taught himself Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, and Dutch — a cobbler with no university degree, no ordination, no credentials the religious establishment would recognize.

Seven years later, Carey sailed for India. Over the next four decades, he translated the entire Bible into six languages and portions into twenty-nine more. He established schools, fought the practice of widow burning, and planted seeds of faith across a subcontinent.

When God spoke to Jeremiah — "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I set you apart" — He was declaring what Carey's life would prove centuries later. The call of God does not wait for human readiness. El Shaddai does not consult our resumes. He reaches down, touches the mouth of the reluctant, and says what He said to Jeremiah: "Do not say, 'I am too young.' I will put My words in your mouth."