On Monday, Elizabeth Elliot was called Home. For those unaware, Elizabeth was a lady with a unique story, who served God whole-heartedly and inspired many to missions. I first heard about her as an inquisitive eleven year-old while reading a short biography about her husband, Jim Elliot. In brief, Elizabeth met Jim at Wheaton College and there they began to seek God about a future together, however, they both believed God was calling them to different mission fields and so, with God at the centre, they parted company. It wasn’t long though, before Lord brought them together again to serve the Quichua Indians in Ecuador. Their work there was short and in the grand scheme of things it seemed relatively unimportant, however, the reality is that the story of their sacrifice and total surrender to a sovereign God still resounds around the globe as an inspiration for many to take up their crosses and follow Jesus. Elisabeth put their story very simply, she said,
“A year after I went to Ecuador, Jim Elliot, whom I had met at Wheaton, also entered tribal areas with the Quichua Indians. In nineteen-fifty-three we were married in the city of Quito and continued our work together. Jim had always hoped to have the opportunity to enter the territory of an unreached tribe. The Aucas were in that category—a fierce group whom no one had succeeded in meeting without being killed. After the discovery of their whereabouts, Jim and four other missionaries entered Auca territory. After a friendly contact with three of the tribe, they were speared to death.”
It was tragic, but our God always has a plan, and he used the weakness of the situation to bring about His glory to make a human disaster become a Heavenly Triumph. As a result of their sacrifice, many hearts and lives have been pointed to Jesus. For me, hearing about this sacrifice gave me a heart for missions, and for many years after, I too wanted to go to Ecuador and follow in Jim and Elizabeth’s footsteps. The heart for missions is unquenchable.
Jim is well known for a famous statement, he once wrote, ’He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.’ As an eleven year old, I really struggled with this. I knew it was an important statement, but I didn’t know what it meant. In fact, it took several more read-throughs and a good deal of thinking before I finally understood. Jim was talking about giving his life, and more than that, he was talking about giving and losing everything he had, to gain life with Jesus. His eyes were fixed on greater things than just the fading joys of earth, but rather on the eternal, life-giving hope that only a totally surrendered walk with Jesus can bring.
But what does this mean? ‘What does walking with Jesus look like?’ and is it really worth it?
Jesus is probably the best person to give an answer as he’s the one who does the walking with us. Mark 8: 24 - 26 speaks of a time when Jesus gave a very direct answer to that question, ‘Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?” Reading that, it’s clear to see that our calling is a ‘strange one’, or so I’m told. Instead of being successful, trying to get to the top, or even trying to just be plain old comfortable, we are told to give all, sell all, and follow Jesus. It’s foolish, stupid even. Who gives up that much to follow someone who lived 2,000 years ago? No one does, no one but a fool. Yet it seems my problem is that I’m not foolish enough, while I write, there are brothers and sisters dying, suffering, losing all for the sake of Jesus, giving all they have, and holding nothing back. They undergo persecution, segregation, removal of human rights, and yet their faith in Jesus is firm. They know that this world holds nothing for them, and they literally give their lives because they have a Heavenly perspective which shows them that there is a God who is worth infinitely more than anything this world has to offer. This heavenly perspective was shared by Paul as he wrote in 1 Corinthians 1 vs 18, ‘For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.’ He got straight to the point, you see, he didn’t care if people thought he was a fool - all he cared about was the seeming foolishness of the cross! Later on in the book he writes, ’I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and… I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified.’
So my encouragement is this - It’s a foolish choice, so do it! Jim and Elizabeth were totally right, they were looking at the culture and ways of the world square on and calling them out with their Jesus-centred words and actions. Why? Because according to them, only a fool would be completely sold for God, only a fool would give everything in surrender, only a fool would bypass comforts and security for a walk with Jesus. It just doesn’t make sense to the world.
In reality, it’s hard to give up everything, it’s hard to surrender, and it hurts! Bearing a cross hurts. Jesus didn’t die to end our suffering, he died to break the chains of death and make a way so that we could take up our crosses and follow him. His death and resurrection gave us a means for establishing his kingdom on earth, for uniting us in the hope of his return, for restoring broken relationships, healing the broken-hearted and for redeeming people from the very grip of hell. It is the fundamental event of history, yet we so often over-look its true significance. When Jesus cried, ’It is finished’, he didn’t just build the bridge from man to God, but he crossed it and gave us his life and his calling. Please remember, we are not alone in this, this is a walk with a wonderful Saviour who knows the depths of our sinful heart. Therefore, our radical lifestyle will be not be out of duty, but rather it will come from the overflow of our heart’s worship, as we begin to understand that Jesus gave his everything for us, and we have no greater calling than to do the same. How often I forget it, yet how faithful our God is. The ebbing tide of His sweet-scented love swells to cover for our foul, sinful hearts. It is Him alone who is able ‘to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— to the only God our Saviour be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.’ It’s all about him, it’s all about Jesus, so to Him be our everything, to him be all glory and majesty and power, to him be my life, my university, my family. To him alone I owe, and to Him alone I will give my all.
I’ve made the point already I hope, but I’ll reiterate it with a lesson learnt from the book of Acts. Here we have Peter and Paul, who had given up everything to follow Jesus. They had nothing in this life, and yet somehow had an absolutely certain and radical faith that this life wasn’t the be all and end all. Why? Because they had Jesus. Peter had been there when Jesus said to ‘Take up your cross and follow me,’ and these two, they totally got it. The concept of taking up their cross meant the abandonment of all they had and instead the attainment of a walk with Jesus. They, along with Jim and Elizabeth Elliot, understood that when they got to Heaven they would have nothing but Jesus, and more than that, they wouldn’t want anything but Jesus, and so to take up their crosses was no duty, but rather a divine calling to have the same perspective on life that Jesus had. Oh to live like that! To live as if I had just seen Jesus, as if nothing else mattered anymore, as if all that the world could throw at me was nothing compared to being with Jesus, as if no circumstance I faced could hinder my view of a beautiful Saviour, as if my past could never overtake the wonder of walking with Him, as if any and everything fell into utter insignificance in view of a loving God who calls me by name. But hey, it a foolish choice, or at least you’ll be told it is. So are you foolish enough to take up your cross and follow Him?
I am learning, through much failure and an abundance of grace, that no matter how foolish I appear, there is nothing worth more than walking with Jesus.
None, nothing, nobody, but Jesus.
