As research for the book that God has led me to write, I've read several books that tell the stories of faithful Christians, most of whom have already entered into glory. I want to share a few things that God has taught me from these books because they have been absolutely life changing. I don't say that flippantly or proudly. I've been humbled by the power of God at work in my brothers and sisters, and I want to share that with you. Many of these are books that you may have already read, and I wish I had read them earlier. On the other hand, the timing was all God's because they really have hit me at the moment when they could do the most good in me.
I saw the above quote for the first time while I was at a doctor's appointment. My doctor was a strong believer, and she wanted to share this beautiful truth with her patients. I knew Jim and Elisabeth Elliot's story, and I had heard her speak, but I'd never read her account of what took place in the jungle of Ecuador. Recently, a friend recommended that I read Through Gates of Splendor, so I ordered it that day.
Jim Elliot, Pete Fleming, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, and Ed McCully went to Ecuador to serve as missionaries. They took their families to the primitive jungle to share the love of Jesus with people belonging to tribes who were notoriously dangerous to foreigners. Not only that, they eventually set their sites on the single most deadly tribe in the area, the people of the Auca tribe. For these men, a successful life was one of total obedience and sacrifice.
This definition completely flies in the face of the American ideal. While scrolling through Facebook, I saw that a mom had posted an article titled "Girls With Nagging Moms Grow Up to Be More Successful". Before reading the article, I knew what the standards for success were in the study. Sure enough, higher grades and higher wages were the defined requirements for success cited by the article. It makes sense that girls who never feel that they're good enough for their mother's approval would work hard to satisfy her constant nagging in the back of their minds, but is that really success?
These five families did not buy in to that definition. They had a different concept of success for their lives. They left opportunities for higher paying jobs in the comfortable United States to live in huts that they built themselves. They used their honed linguistic skills to study languages that were only used by a few thousand people in order to translate the Bible for tribespeople who didn't have the ability or desire to read at the time. They left the safety of suburbia for harsh weather, rough travel, and constant danger.
God laid the Auca on their hearts, and they began tirelessly working to reach these people with the glorious Gospel. My favorite quote was from Pete Fleming.
Honestly, I can't keep from crying as I re-read those words. These men did give their lives. Their children grew up with only stories of their fathers. Their wives raised their children as widows until they remarried. The men were killed by the very people for whom they sacrificed everything. They never saw a single convert from the Auca tribe during their earthly lives. From every quantifiable standard, they died as failures.
Elisabeth Elliot and Rachel Saint (sister of Nate Saint) went back to the same people who killed their husband and brother. They continued the work that these five men began, and they saw the fruit that Jim, Roger, Nate, Ed, and Pete weren't able to see on this earth.
But Pete received the answer to his prayer as he is now sitting around a table with brothers and sisters who know Christ because of his life and his death, and they are worshipping the Son together in a place without death and without pain.
The Auca tribe has a new name. Instead of being called by a word meaning "naked" or "savage", they are now called the Waorani, and in that tribe there is a growing and fruitful church that reaches out to the other tribes around them, occasionally giving their lives so that others may come to faith in the same God that Pete, Jim, Roger, Ed, and Nate worshipped.
To live for the same purpose that Christ lived, and to die for the glory of the One who died for us, that's success.
"What more could be given to a life?"
For more:
Click here to purchase Through Gates of Splendor from Amazon.
Click here to purchase End of the Spear by Steve Saint, son of Nate Saint from Amazon.
To live for the same purpose that Christ lived, and to die for the glory of the One who died for us, that's success. AMEN!!! These people went there for the right reason & they sacrificed All for Christ. Great Blog, Hannah!
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