Elisabeth Elliot and Charleston Christians Respond to Sorrow
Last Monday, a hero of the faith went home. Elisabeth Elliot had fought the good fight and finished the race. Almost 60 years earlier, she and her husband Jim, together with 4 other couples, devoted themselves to bring the good news of Christ to a remote people group in Ecuador. The Waoroni (or Auca) people solved disputes by savagely spearing one another. They abandoned inconvenient babies, and strangled children to bury with their fathers who were dying of spear wounds. “In fact, outsiders were not their greatest concern; killing within the tribe was so rampant that they were on the verge of annihilating themselves.” (Steve Saint) In the process of getting to know the Waoroni, there was a disastrous misunderstanding, and Jim and the four other missionary men were violently speared to death by Auca warriors.
How could God
have allowed such a massive, tragic slaying of His people? Elisabeth’s response to this devastating loss
was to go, by faith, along with Rachel Saint, the sister of another martyr, to
live with the Waoroni, to learn their language, and to share the hope of
forgiveness and reconciliation through Christ.
Now, 59 years later, the Waoroni tribe has grown to 8 times the size it was in 1956, and about 1/3 of them are Christians. They are sharing
the gospel of Christ through a clinic, pharmacy and school for their own people
and as they host tourist groups in their region. (see this article on the Waoroni.)
“Cruelty and
wrong are not the greatest forces in the world.
There is nothing
eternal in them. Only love is eternal.”
― Elisabeth Elliot
― Elisabeth Elliot
Elisabeth spent seven
more years in Ecuador, and then continued to share the gospel right here in the
US for the remainder of her life. She
immersed herself in God’s Word, and shared it with us through her writing and speaking.
Her calm, quiet faith will continue to bolster the faith of believers
into the future.
Last Monday Elisabeth
realized the fulfillment of her faith, as she went home to be with her
Savior. And just two days later, a
gunman sat through a Bible study in Charleston, SC, listened without hearing
the Word of God, and in an unexpected way, eerily similar to the Waoroni
savagery, opened fire in a violent killing of nine worshipers.
How could God
have allowed such a massive, tragic slaying of His people? Yet the response of the church to this
devastating loss was, by faith, to extend the hope of forgiveness, and to urge a
repentant response to the gospel of Christ.
“Sorrow is lent to us for just a little while,
that we may use it for eternal purposes.
Then it will be taken away
and everlasting joy will be our Father’s gift to us,
and the Lord God will wipe away
all tears off all faces.”
What impact might it have on
our nation, and even on our world, to see this kind of response from the church
to the senseless violence and destruction that evil imposes on us? This sorrow is a sacred loan, entrusted to
us that we might use it for eternal blessing.
We wonder how God can allow such tragedy. But perhaps the better question is, how can
God use this tragedy for the eternal, long-term blessing of His people, and for
His eternal glory?
God's timing of the events of our
world
is engineered from the eternal
silence ...
it is faith he is looking for,
a quiet confidence that whatever it is
he is up to,
it will be a wonderful thing,
never mind whether it is what we have
been asking for.
- Elisabeth Elliot
A wonderful thing? We cannot in anyway describe last Wednesday’s
shooting in those words. But "Sometimes God allows what he hates to accomplish
what he loves." (Joni Eareckson Tada) He hates the evil. But He’s at
work redeeming what seems like unmitigated wrong to accomplish everlasting
good. He desires in His people a
trusting confidence in Him, though His ways are not according to our agenda.
“Our vision is
so limited we can hardly imagine a love
that does not
show itself in protection from suffering....
The love of God
did not protect His own Son....
He will not necessarily protect us –
not from
anything it takes to make us like His Son.
A lot of
hammering and chiseling and purifying by fire
will have to go
into the process.”
― Elisabeth Elliot
― Elisabeth Elliot
Elisabeth’s hope was not that
her life on earth would be right and just and safe. Her hope was to be
like Christ. She chose to respond to the sacred sorrow lent to her by God with
words of praise and thanks, even through her tears, for His
eternal, untouchable gifts. God was
honored, and the hope of the gospel was on display.
The Emanuel AME Church of
Charleston has responded to their sacred sorrow, lent to them by God, with
words of forgiveness and a call to repent, even
through their tears. A fixed focus on the Father’s eternal, untouchable
gifts will empower them to continue to honor Him in their response to this
sacred sorrow, putting the hope of the gospel on display.
Elisabeth’s tears have been wiped
away. Her Father has replaced all the
sorrow with everlasting joy. She’s home. "Last
week," Goff (interim pastor of Emanuel AME) said, "dark powers came over Mother Emanuel. But, that's alright. God
in his infinite wisdom said 'that's alright. I've got the nine.' "-
CNN Those who knew the Lord are home with
Him, all tears erased.
And the rest of us? We have a little while longer to use this
temporary scaffolding of sorrow well; to display the hope of the gospel, to be
purified and chiseled, and made like His Son before the loan is recalled and
replaced with everlasting joy.
And the ransomed
of the LORD shall return and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy
shall be upon their heads;
they shall
obtain gladness and joy,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
Isaiah 51:11
