“There is nothing worth living for, unless it is worth dying for.”
― Elisabeth Elliot
I fell in love with Elisabeth Elliot’s writings early in my life. As a young Believer, her faith and articulation impressed and inspired me. As an artist, her story sparked my imagination and got me thinking about the cost of true discipleship.
Elisabeth married Jim Elliot in 1953 in Quito, Ecuador where both she and Jim were already serving as missionaries. For years this passionate, well-spoken, and adventurous young man had been preparing to advance God’s kingdom by connecting with unreached people groups. Their love for each other was a small part, a reflection of the deep love they had for Jesus and their devotion to following Him.
OPERATION AUCA
Jim felt a deep call to the Aucas, a notoriously violent tribe, deep in the Ecuadorian jungle. He set up a team of four other men who would fly over the Auca village, lowering gifts and speaking the few friendly Auca phrases they knew.
“They went simply because they knew they belonged to God because He was their Creator and their Redeemer. They had no choice but to willingly obey Him, and that meant obeying His command to take the good news to every nation.” (Elisabeth Elliot)
In 1956, after three months of flying, the men made contact with the tribe. But what they first thought was a cautious welcome, turned out to be a brutal murder of all five missionaries.
Young Elisabeth and her daughter, barely a year old, were left without husband and father.
Life from Death
Though she and the other wives grieved the loss of their husbands, Elisabeth continued to serve among the Quechua, eventually meeting two Auca women who introduced her to the tribe, allowing her and Rachel Saint, wife of the pilot who flew with Jim, to move into the village and share the gospel. Elisabeth’s forgiveness and acceptance of the people who had killed her husband was a living example of God’s unconditional love which opened the door for these previously unreached people to know Jesus Christ.
I can’t imagine Jim Elliot the young boy, heart on fire, sharing the gospel whenever and wherever he could, dreaming of dying as a martyr. I don’t think that was the ending he envisioned. But ultimately he trusted that nothing would be wasted in God’s hands.
“For which of you, wanting to build a tower, doesn’t first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it?” Luke 14:28
His love led him to death at the hands of ignorance and fear and his death led to countless professions of faith, an ongoing legacy of redemption.
“He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.” – Jim Elliot
The Elliots are some of my favorite people. Elisabeth has been my “mentor from afar” most of my adult life.
One small correction: Rachel Saint was Nate’s sister, not his wife.
As a young boy, Jim probably didn’t think about martyrdom. But it enetered his thoughts and journal as a young man. He wrote, ““He makes His ministers a flame of fire. Am I ignitible? God deliver me from the dread asbestos of ‘other things.’ Saturate me with the oil of the Spirit that I may be aflame. But flame is transient, often short lived. Canst thou bear this, my soul – short life? … Make me thy fuel, Flame of God.” and “God, I pray Thee, light these idle sticks of my life and may I burn for Thee. Consume my life, my God, for it is Thine. I seek not a long life, but a full one, like you, Lord Jesus.” It seems God may have been preparing him for the truth that his life would not be a long one. But it was definitely a full one.