A Remarkable Life

This semester I have been able to sit at the feet of a truly remarkable woman, Meesaeng Lee Choi, a Korean Christian who now teaches the History of the Holiness Movement here at Asbury. Dr. Choi testifies to having experienced entire sanctification in August of 1981 while kneeling beside her bed one evening after several hours of prayer. Through the death of her father at a young age and a very painful childhood, Dr. Choi eventually came to Christianity in college and experienced the "baptism of the Holy Spirit" a few years later. To my knowledge, she is the one person I have come across who will look me in the eye and say, "I have been entirely sanctified."

This fascinates me. Why is it that an experience so central to the fabric of the historic American holiness movement of the 19th century is so rare? Why does this Korean woman alone testify to having had the experience of full salvation, inner cleansing, and Christian perfection? I must admit that the culture gap between Dr. Choi and myself is huge. Many things she says and testifies to do not fit well with my Western, modernistic framework. And yet, even from a Western scientific perspective, I must admit her testimony as evidence and weigh it carefully. Here are some of the more radical claims that she makes:

1) She claims to only sleep about 4-5 hours/night because she is so excited to spend time in prayer. This was not the case before her 1981 experience.

2) She has witnessed multiple miraculous healings and believes that the American church has forgotten the fact that divine physical healing was the primary method for spreading the gospel during the first three centuries of the church. She regularly participated in meetings in Korea on Friday nights which would last for 6-7 hours each -- a room filled with loud prayer and miraculous healings of those with even terminal diseases. She attributes the radical growth of the church in Korea to this fact.

3) She claims that most miraculous healings take place after 3-7 days of communal fasting.

4) When I asked her why the Korean church seems so vibrant and the American church seems so apathetic, she answered with one word: prayer. Korean Christians pray like mad (usually in large groups for 2-3 hours early each morning before breakfast).

5) Dr. Choi claims to be almost insanely happy. She admits that she is often troubled in her spirit and that she still suffers a great deal (from spiritual forces), but she radiates with a joy and vibrancy I have not seen before. For Dr. Choi, holiness and happiness are the same. And she is perfectly happy.

6) She likes to say that "death is the final healing." She does not fear death in the least.

Sitting at the feet of this woman for the past 12 weeks has challenged me in many ways. I have realized that my own view of Christianity is far too small. God is doing things in cultures that I barely even understand. My modernist, Western culture predisposes me to look askance at the supernatural. And yet I cannot deny the testimony of this woman any more than I can deny the testimonies of hundreds of thousands of Christians in Asia, Africa, and South America. In my search for Truth (aka God), I must listen to her voice.