Book Corner

This is a long time over due. I just keep forgetting to write about the book.

This summer I finally read Through Gates of Splendor by Elizabeth Elliot. I have wanted to read it for a while and when I saw it at half price books I bought it and read it immediately. It's the story of the 5 young missionaries who went into inner Ecuador to take the Gospel to an unreached people group. They were brutally killed by those they were trying to reach. The movie "End of the Spear" is about these men. Elizabeth Elliot, the wife of Jim Elliot, wrote the book using her husband's journal, letters, and journals and letters from the other 4 men.

It's an amazing story. I know that many look at the story of these men, killed in their early twenties, leaving behind wives and small children, and think "what a waste!" I know it seems like a reckless and ridiculous thing to try to do and ultimately a failure of a mission. Yet to me, this story is very challenging.

I don't know if God has in His plans for me to go to an unreached people group to take the Gospel to those without it. But I am encouraged and challenged by young men who valued the salvation of that tribe and felt the burden of sharing the truth they had with others, that they would do whatever it takes to share that truth. I know that I am not like that and would like to be.

It's a weighty thing to recognize that what the world values and calls "success" often is so far from what God values and calls "well done." Though sometimes I think I want a predictable life, with a hint of adventure every now and then, deep down my heart cries out that I want whatever God has for me. I really mean that. I want every part of my life to bring Him glory and to make Him famous in the whole world, or at least my corner of it. And sometimes the lifestyle choices Josh and I have made and are making seem binding and silly. Yet when I think about the possibilities of what God may have for us, nothing else matters.

Okay, so I guess that wasn't just a book corner post. If you were looking for something light, I'm guessing you didn't find it here! Thanks for listening to my heart.