Elisabeth Elliot Leitch is one of the most devoted Christians of our generation. Yet life has failed to meet many of her expectations. Her first husband, Jim Elliot, was one of the five young missionaries murdered in the 1950s by the Auca Indians. Her second husband, Addison Leitch, died of cancer in the early 1970s. Her many months of linguistic work with the Colorado Indians went down the drain when all her data was stolen, and when her informant-the only man who could help her translate the Scriptures into the Colorado language-was killed by a drunken Indian in a senseless accident. Elisabeth’s adult life has been plagued by a series of tragedies. Yet she has trusted God, no matter what.
For each of us there are many unsolved questionsquestions that clamor for answers. Our experiences don’t always meet our expectations. And for all our hopes that go up in smoke, we need to cope regardless of the cost, if we want to face our disappointments squarely. We need to be reminded that God’s purposes for us don’t stand or fall on the success or failure of any single effort!
Pastor John Claypool tells of a funeral he conducted for a man who had taken his own life. In the suicidal note, the man explained that he had discovered a painful lump in his side a few days before, and with horror remembered that both his parents had died of cancer. The note ended by saying, “I cannot go through all that suffering. I’m taking the easy way out.” The tragedy of it all was that the man took this extreme measure without even seeing his physician. The autopsy showed that the growth in his side was actually benign, and could have been easily removed.
The truth is that many of us tend to handle the experiences of life that don’t meet our expectations in similar fashion. We are inclined to view each crisis, each disappointment, each blasted hope as the whole story. We fail to remember that God isn’t finished with us just because one of our dreams is shattered or because one of our projects turns into utter failure. The life of faith requires perspective the perspective of the long haul!
May/June 1988