A Greater Glory

When God first called me into writing and speaking in 2004, I was excited for what lay ahead. When I walked by book stands in the grocery store or the airport, I dreamed of the time when I, too, would be a famous author with books on every corner. I could hardly wait to get started.

But little did I know, I was beginning a very long journey. It would be nine years before a first book came into being, years filled with developing my writing skills and learning the publishing business and rejection after rejection. I would spend many hours studying Scripture and preparing sermon after sermon for our little church. It wasn’t until several book proposal attempts had failed did a publisher take a chance on me.

And once I finally did publish, the learning curve continued. It would be another seven years and three more book proposals until a second offer by a publisher would be made on a second book.

I wonder, would I have been quite so enthusiastic had I known the length of the learning curve?

So many years of hard work and serious ministry with little progress toward the goal—would it be worth it in the end?

Elisabeth Elliot spent many years of her life in the heart of the jungle, working to get the languages of several people groups into written linguistic form. Years later, back in the states, she received a copy of the first Auca translation of the New Testament. Opening it, she was surprised to see how the language had morphed since her translation work those many years ago. She writes, “The complete futility, humanly speaking, of all the language work I did (Colorado, Quichua, and Auca, for various reasons, all came to nothing).”[1]

Imagine that—years living in the extreme hardship of the jungle, sacrificing so much, giving all to the cause—all for nothing?

But as I read her account this morning, I immediately thought how God has used her in my life. At Gordon College we had the privilege of having her speak at chapels several times (she lived down the road at that point). No one missed chapel on those days. The depth at which she lived in relationship with God had a huge impact on all of us. She gave wisdom that could only come from years of living on the edge—in complete surrender to the Lord she loved.

And now, these many years later, I am sitting under her teaching once again as I read “Keep a Quiet Heart.” I don’t imagine that during those jungle years, she ever imagined the impact her experiences and insights would have for a new generation. But as she faithfully served, through the painstakingly slow work and efforts, God transformed her and continues to use the results of His handiwork in her with people like me today.

For Elisabeth, reading that new translation was “a deep lesson in the supremacy of Christ. Whom had I set out to serve? May He not do as He wills, then, with his servant and with that servant’s work? Is anything offered to Christ ever wasted?”[2]

When we get a calling, we begin to dream ahead, to the time when we accomplish that sacred goal. In our dreams, we get a sense of significance, fulfillment, and glory from what we picture. But our calling is from God…whose plans may well look different than our own.

He plans a bigger glory for us—in ways we cannot dream or imagine—that will have a whole lot more to do with Him than with ourselves.

If what we do is truly for Him, we cannot claim ownership to any certain result. We just know to obey the calling, keep moving forward, inviting His presence and influence in our work. And while we do that, choose to trust Him in the result—which may well look very different that our dreams. Because it is for Him, not us, that we move forward.

“Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.” Ephesians 3:20-12 NASB

[1] Elisabeth Elliot, Keep Quiet the Heart (Ann Arbor, MI: Vine Books 1995) page 73.

[2] Ibid.