It seems daily I learn that perspective I have on just about everything is limited because so much of my reference is from secondary sources. That is, other people's accounts that they've written down. It is so much more valuable when I hear the perspective of someone who lived through it in there own voice. Let me explain.
A group of 5 missionaries were killed in Equador years before I was born. I believe it was in the 50's, but as I was not alive yet, I am not entirely sure on that. I heard the story of Nate Saint and Jim Elliott as a child, I read it in history class. But this weekend I heard it told from the perspective of a man who was a child at the time and listened to the news report in his school the day it happened. The story is incredible of 5 young men who decided to go to a stone-age group of Indians to take the gospel. They had firearms with them for safety from animals, but had made an agreement that even if attacked they would not use them on humans. And the five men died at the hands of the tribe they were trying to take the gospel to.
That act launched thousands of young people into missions all around the world. But the man who shared it actually heard the radio report. He knew other kids who dedicated their lives to service because of Elliott and his friend's sacrifice. And when he quoted a famous statement of Jim Elliott's it resonated with me in a different way. I hope it moves you, like it moves me...
"He is no fool who gives up what he can not keep to gain what he can not lose."
Elliott and his friends lived that out giving up their lives which they could not have held onto forever, in order to gain an eternal reward that they'll have forever.
--Ben
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