Elliot

Almost a year ago, I read "Through Gates of Splendor" by Elisabeth Elliot. It was the first book I'd read about missionaries, and it changed my perspective on a lot of things. I've been on 5 mission trips before, and they were amazing experiences that molded me into who I am now and what I think is important in life. But reading about these missionaries and the experiences they went through was an eye-opening experience. A few months later, I watched "The End of the Spear" (a hollywood version of the incident) with some LSF friends, and a few months after that, Zach Baker showed me "Beyond the Gates of Splendor" (a documentary type movie), all the while, my perspective continued to change. If you haven't heard of any of these books or movies, let me say you are missing out. Go do a google search, read about Jim Elliot, and come back and finish reading my blog. Or send me an email and I'll buy you a copy of the book! The whole story, from the events that happened to the things that occurred as a result is amazing proof of how God works in all things, how much we can't understand how He works, and how He is sovereign and provides for all we need, even if we don't see it at the time.

I recently showed "Beyond the Gates of Splendor" at the LSF Fall Retreat. In preparation for the movie, I reread some of Elisabeth Elliot's comments about the incident, and the following paragraphs blew me away, and they almost always bring me to tears when I think about how many times I question God and what He is up to in my own life. I'll quote her below:

"The name Auca is a Quichua word meaning "naked" or "savage." It is no longer used. Waorani is what the people call themselves. Their story, at the time of the death of the men, later when I lived with the Indians themselves, and during all the years since as I have recounted it and reflected on it in the light of my own subsequent experience, has pointed to one thing: God is God. If He is God, He is worthy of my worship and my service. I will find rest nowhere but in His will, and that will is infinitely, immeasurably, unspeakably beyond my largest notions of what He is up to...

It is not the level of our spirituality that we can depend on. It is God and nothing less than God, for the work is God's and the call is God's and everything is summoned by Him and to His purposes, the whole scene, the whole mess, the whole package -- our bravery and our cowardice, our love and our selfishness, our strengths and our weaknesses. The God who could take a murderer like Moses and an adulterer like David and a traitor like Peter and make of them strong servants of His is a God who can also redeem savage Indians, using as the instruments of His peace a conglomeration of sinners who sometimes look like heroes and sometimes like villains, for "we are no better than pots of earthenware to contain this treasure [the revelation of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ] and this proves that such transcendent power does not come from us, but is God's alone" (2 Cor 4:7 NEB)

We are not always sure where the horizon is. We would not know which end is up if it were not for the shimmering pathway of light falling on the white sea. The One who laid earth's foundations and settled its dimensions knows where the lines are drawn. He gives all the light we need for trust and for obedience." -- Elisabeth Elliot, "Through Gates of Splendor"