Jim Elliot on Staying Or Going

Posted by parkejladd on Apr 6, 2010 in Featured {Article}, Slider | 7 comments

I want to share this passage from a letter written by Jim Elliot as taken from Shadow of The Almighty by Elizabeth Elliot. I have been studying the life of Elliot over the past few weeks, and throughout that time I have been elated with hope and depressed by overwhelming sadness. I cannot describe how his worldview, faith and life have challenged and pushed me beyond the limits of what I thought possible. Something about Elliot’s story has further transformed me, and I know I will never be the same.

In this passage, Elliot writes in response to those who believed it best he stay in the States in order to further his career as a preacher and teacher instead of following the Lord to Ecuador to proclaim a message of hope to those who had never before heard.

Jim’s parents, along with others who knew him well, could not help questioning whether perhaps his ministry should be among young people in the United States. His gift for Bible teaching and preaching was an unusual one, as had been evidenced in college student work, radio preaching, and evangelistic meetings. They wrote to him, telling him their feeling, and mentioning as well their own sense of loss at seeing him leave home permanently.

“I do not wonder that you were saddened at the word of my going to South America,” he replied on August 8. “This is nothing else than what the Lord Jesus warned us of when He told the disciples that they must become so infatuated with the kingdom and following Him that all other allegiances must become as though they were not. And He never excluded the family tie. In fact, those loves which we regard as closest, He told us must become as hate in comparison with our desires to uphold His cause. Grieve not, then, if your sons seem to desert you, but rejoice, rather, seeing the will of God done gladly…”

“Does it sound harsh so to speak? Surely those who know the great passionate heart of Jehovah must deny their own loves to share in the expression of His. Consider the call from the Throne above, ‘Go ye,’ and from round about, ‘Come over and help us,’ and even the call from the damned souls below, ‘Send Lazarus to my brothers, that they come not to this place.’ Impelled, then, by these voices, I dare not stay home while Quichuas perish. So what if the well-fed church in the homeland needs stirring? They have the Scriptures, Moses, and the Prophets, and a whole lot more. Their condemnation is written on their bank books and in the dust on their Bible covers. American believers have sold their lives to the service of Mammon and God has His rightful way of dealing with those who succumb to the spirit of Laodicea.“

Elliot’s words stand alone, strong and impactful without my adding to them. He went on to be a missionary in Ecuador where he soon gave his life, murdered by the very people he was trying so desperately to reach. Eventually, many within that same tribe came to know the love of Jesus, and it all came to pass because one man was willing to forsake everything the world so esteems for a chance to love people who had never been fully loved before, even to the point of giving his very life.

What are you waiting for?