Feb
02
2010
Whimpering Stateside Young People and Demon-Fearing Indians
Jim Elliot, shortly before martyred in service to the gospel:
You wonder why people choose fields away from the States when young people at home are drifting because no one wants to take time to listen to their problems. I’ll tell you why I left. Because those Stateside young people have every opportunity to study, hear, and understand the Word of God in their own language, and these Indians have no opportunity whatsoever. I have had to make a cross of two logs, and lie down on it, to show the Indians what it means to crucify a man. When there is that much ignorance over here and so much knowledge and opportunity over there, I have no question in my mind why God sent me here. Those whimpering Stateside young people will wake up on the Day of Judgment condemned to worst fates than these demon-fearing Indians, because having a Bible, they were bored with it–while these never heard of such a thing as writing. (Shadow of the Almighty, p. 237)
The words ring with sacrificial authenticity and the piercing wisdom of one who saw eternal truths more clearly than most. There’s the sound of Bonhoeffer in Elliot’s words: “When Christ calls a man, He bids him come die.” These kinds of prophetic statements strip us of so much self-absorbed, pretentious, and cowardly cavils at the call of God. They reduce us to either naked boldness for our King, or that pitiable nothingness that loves self above all else, even the eternal.