Life and leadership on the mission field can be incredibly lonely. For singles on the field who long for a partner, the loneliness is acute. For leaders, the responsibilities and weightiness of leadership can be isolating. It is hard to find others who can empathize with our experiences.
If anyone can speak on loneliness, it is Elisabeth Elliot. In this book, she shares the lessons God taught her through being widowed twice, and lays out a path and example for us to follow. Though this path seems painful and weighty, it hinges on the absolute goodness of God and his good desires for us. In surrender, we receive his gifts for us in seasons of loneliness.
For me, this is required reading for anyone joining our team in their first term, and a great resource for those experiencing seasons of loneliness.
God has promised to supply our needs. What we don’t have now we don’t need now.
Our loneliness cannot always be fixed, but it can always be accepted as the very will of God for now, and that turns into something beautiful. Perhaps it is like the field wherein lies the valuable treasure. We must buy the field. It is no sun drenched meadow embroidered with wildflowers. It is a bleak and empty place, but once we know it contains a jewel the whole picture changes.
In my case, “selling everything” meant giving up the self-pity and the bitter questions. I do not mean we are to go out looking for chances to be as lonely as possible. I am talking about acceptance of the inevitable. And when, through a willed act we receive this thing we did not want, then Loneliness, the name of the field nobody wants, is transformed into a place of hidden treasure.
Can we give up all for the love of God? When the surrender of ourselves seems too much to ask, it is first of all because our thoughts about God Himself are paltry…We ask …how much He will demand from us, how high is the price we must pay before He is placated.
If we had the least notion of His loving-kindness and tender mercy, His fatherly care for His poor children, His generosity, His beautiful plans for us; if we knew how patiently He waits for our turning to Him, how gently He means to lead us to green pastures and still waters…if we had any inkling of all this, could we be reluctant to let go of…whatever we clutch so fiercely in our sweaty little hands?
If with courage and joy we pour ourselves out for Him and for others for His sake, it is not possible to lose, in any final sense, anything worth keeping. We will lose ourselves and our selfishness. We will gain everything worth having.