On trusting God…

I’m still working through Jim Elliott’s biography, Shadow of the Almighty, and because it is so rich I am taking it in small doses.  I admit that all I really knew of him I had learned from reading books by his widow, Elisabeth Elliott.  I knew her side of their story and I knew of his famous martyrdom while attempting to share the Gospel with the Auca tribe in Ecuador.  But reading this book has given me such a deeper insight into the life and thoughts of a man who was far from perfect and would not consider himself a hero, yet who valued the Word of God above everything else and who, for our benefit, was an excellent journaler. 

One of the first stories is set while he was a student at Wheaton College and had been offered a job as a business manager, which he turned down.  “After a long session of prayer my mind became settled, and I found peace in believing it was not the Lord’s will that I take it.  Yet I still cannot set down reason for the decision save this, that the Lord showed the psalmist the way of life, evidently by him simply lingering in his presence (Psalm 116:11).  I waited for Him and somehow the answer came.  I trust it was of the Spirit.  ‘A man’s heart devises his way.’ said Solomon, ‘but the Lord directs his steps’  My heart has devised to serve him.  I must leave the next step to Him.” 

The quote he is most famous for is one he wrote in his journal years before he set foot in Ecuador, “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep for that which he cannot lose,” but there are so many other meaningful and profound things he thought and wrote.  I found it interesting, also, that after he graduated from college, he did not have a job so he moved back home to Oregon to live with his parents while he did odd jobs and waited for clear direction from God.  He talks about how others were talking about him and criticizing the fact that he didn’t have a job yet, but he left the vindication to the Lord and continued to do the next thing until the way was made clear, which incidentally was several years later.

He was focusing on 2 mission opportunities – one in India and one in Peru, when he “just happened” to hear of a letter from a missionary in Ecuador…But he believed that the way would be obvious when the time came, provided that he continued fulfilling the duties which stared him in the face.  As George MacDonald wrote, “obedience is the opener of eyes.”