Day 9

If you have not yet read Through Gates of Splendor, Elisabeth Elliot's narrative of the death of her husband and several other men who took their families to Ecuador to share the gospel there, then you really should pick it up. It is a compelling read. In my Bible, I have a quote by Barbara Youderian, one of the wives of the men that were martyred, next to Psalm 48:14. I'll include both her words and the verse below.

"Tonight the Captain told us of his finding four bodies in the river.... As I came face to face with the news of Roj's death, my heart was filled with praise. He was worthy of his homegoing.... I wrote a letter to the mission family, trying to explain the peace I have. I want to be free of self-pity. It is a tool of Satan to rot away life. I am sure that this is the perfect will of God.... Roj came to do the will of Him that sent him. The Lord has closed our hearts to grief and hysteria, and filled in with His perfect peace."

 

"For this is God,

Our God forever and ever;

He will be our guide

Even to death."

 

 

What does Christianity look like? I think it plays out in an incomprehendable faith in God's sovereignty that allows people like Barbara Youderian to trust the Lord when her husband is martyred, or like yesterday's verses, to allow Ezekiel to continue to do God's work even when his heart must have felt like it was ripped in two. It looks crazy sometimes, and the faith is not won without deep learning, but it is beautiful. Christianity lived in the middle of trials is beautiful.

 

31 Days of Quotes: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7, Day 8