THE COST OF JOURNEYING

 “One does not surrender a life in an instant. That which is lifelong can only be surrendered in a lifetime.”   E.E.

June 2,1962, Zempoala River, Pue.

When my life is over, and my specific assignments are completed, my hope is that I have left evidence of a legacy left behind to the next generation for God's glory.
In 1956, there was wide press coverage of Jim Elliot's death, one of four other missionaries, tragically killed at the hands of the Auca Indians in Ecuador.  I was 7rs. old at the time and recall the somber climate of the missionary adults around me.
Having just experienced a few years earlier, Dad's traveling companion's martyrdom, was still on their minds.
Whether these incidents impacted my life to follow Jesus is left to conjecture but what really catapulted my journey was the death of one of my classmates that same year and later a childhood friend killed in a car accident shy of high school graduation guided my future choices.

Remember those photo booths?,age 7

The cost of journeying through life is great at times and through this I have gleaned amazing nuggets from my experiences.
 Elisabeth Elliot, a woman of great influence in my life through her lectures and writings has used her life walk through to further my growth.  Her nuggets of truth have impacted me in ways I could not possibly imagine.  Those timeless nuggets still tug at my soul.
What endeared me to her was her "blunt — not ungracious, not impetuous, not snappy or gruff.  But direct, unsentimental, no-nonsense, tell-it-like-it-is, no whining allowed."

I admired the vintage in her.  She believed in asking of herself, "Is this God's will for me, right now, in this place?"
Even toward the end of her life, she handled ten years of dementia just as she had with other potential disasters.
  “She accepted those things, [knowing] they were no surprise to God,” her husband, Gren said. “It was something she would rather not have experienced, but she received it.”
A powerful continuous message to me, to accept what is now my season of life.  I find myself rediscovering her nuggets of wisdom in an attempt to gain insight to my steps of surrender on my continuing journey in life.
 
"Many, O Lord my God,
are the wonders you have done.
The things you planned for us
no one can recount to you;  were
I to speak and tell of them, they 
would be too many to declare." Ps.40:5