Sixty-five years ago today, January 8, 1956, five young missionaries—Jim Elliot, Pete Fleming, Ed McCully, Nate Saint, and Roger Youderian—were martyred by a remote tribal group in the jungles of Ecuador when they attempted to make friendly contact. Several years early Jim Elliot had written these words in his diary, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” Those words have been quoted often because they described the ultimate sacrifice of the young men.
As we pause today to remember that event, we would do well to ask another question. Is that proverb “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose” as applicable to the life long-lived as it was to the young martyrs? Jim Elliot had a little-known older brother who also epitomized this quote.
Bert and Colleen Elliot gave their lives to an itinerate ministry in Northern Peru, planting 150 churches over a 62-year span. They introduced Jesus and His love to thousands in northern Peru’s jungles, mountains, and coastal cities. They affectionately cared for people’s physical and spiritual needs, soothed and healed sectarian rifts, and planted and shepherded remote local churches across hundreds of miles.
Bert and Colleen never laid out a long-term life plan; they invited the Lord’s to-do list for each day. And followed it. These daily expressions of simple obedience accumulated and contributed greatly to many becoming followers of Jesus and to the now thriving church movement throughout South America.
And that causes us to ask another question. Am I willing to give what I cannot keep to gain what I cannot lose? Do I live my life with an eternal perspective?