Jolted...

One of the reasons I call Jim Elliot my "hero" (-sounds like such a childish word, so I use it cautiously-) is that when I read the things he wrote in his journals, I am jolted from my complacency. His passion is like a breath that blows on the smoldering embers in my heart and re-ignites my own flame. As iron sharpens iron, the Proverb says, so one man sharpens another. I looked up these quotes (below) tonight and was so stirred by not just his eloquence, but his beautiful heart of surrender. I often read them slowly, and make his prayers my own; because he said it so much better than I could have.
Are there any Jim Elliots left?
He wrote about blood and fire; surrender and glory. His mind was so fixed on Christ that these things poured from his lips and his pen in a natural overflow; he didn't "turn on" spirituality. He was a spiritual man in his core. He was murdered as a young man on the banks of the Curaray river for the sake of the gospel before I was even born, but his life impacts mine today. I wonder; will my life impact anyone to that extent after it's extinguished? It's not how I die that will matter as much as how I lived. I'm not willing to live a life anchored to this earth when I claim citizenship in heaven. Through a restless (but sweet) yearning inside, God is pulling me farther upwards and I'm not sure exactly how to cut more ropes that are holding me to the ground, but I know it's by surrender and so I've given Him my everything ....again.... tonight.

“God, I pray Thee, light these idle sticks of my life and may I burn for Thee. Consume my life, my God, for it is Thine. I seek not a long life, but a full one, like you, Lord Jesus.”

“Father, let me be weak that I might loose my clutch on everything temporal. My life, my reputation, my possessions, Lord, let me loose the tension of the grasping hand.”

“I covenanted with the Father that He would do either of two things: either glorify Himself to the utmost in me or slay me. By His grace I shall not have His second best.”

“O Christ, let me know Thee--let me catch glimpses of Thyself, seated and expectant in glory, let me rest there despite all wrong surging round me. Lead me in the right path, I pray.”

“Father, take my life, yea, my blood if Thou wilt, and consume it with Thine enveloping fire. I would not save it, for it is not mine to save. Have it Lord, have it all. Pour out my life as an oblation for that world. Blood is only of value as it flows before Thine altar.”

“God deliver me from the dread asbestos of ‘other things.’ Saturate me with the oil of the Spirit that I may be a flame for you.”

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”