Since we’re just days away from Christmas, with less than two weeks left of 2023 (can that be right?!), I thought of sharing the “best of”. Short of time and energy, I will instead share my top read this year.
I might mention some of my other favourites later. These works helped me to process something, brought me delight, and/or moved me. It is quite something when one book does all three so deeply. Especially a biography at that.
Reading someone foundational to your own beliefs helps you make sense of the core that holds your convictions. At least that’s how I’ve felt after reading Elisabeth Elliot’s biography by Lucy S.R. Austen. Few voices have influenced my faith like Elisabeth Elliot’s. Digging into the single 500+ page volume was a deep dive into the life of a woman whose writing and speaking formed so much of my convictions.
During the school year 1991-92, I was a freshman at a liberal arts secular university with an active student ministry on campus. It’s where I became a follower of Jesus when I was 19. Some weeks later I heard the announcement during a student meeting that someone named Elisabeth Elliot was coming to speak later that week. The name didn’t say anything to me, so I dismissed it.
That is until a leader familiar with her story urged anyone able to attend to make the time as this was a not-to-miss opportunity. He explained that Elisabeth Elliot had chosen to stay with her baby daughter after her husband was speared to death by the tribe they’d been trying to reach as missionaries in the jungle of Ecuador; and that the result of that choice was a relationship with that tribe that would lead to forgiveness and faith. I was stunned. At that moment I made plans to attend the talk.
I will never forget, sitting at my campus auditorium and listening to the tall slender woman in her 60s unfold the life choices that led her to that jungle in Ecuador among the Waodani tribe. I learned that she had been a writer for years and that she was in her third marriage, having been widowed twice. She lost her first husband killed by tribesmen, and her second husband to cancer.
That summarizes what she is best known for. Yet, however famous, that part of her story is but a chapter in the long, prolific, and profoundly human life. That is what reading this biography showed me. Masterfully written, biographer Lucy Austen intertwines journal entries and personal letters throughout the narrative alongside her succinct commentary to guide or tie certain portions for flow.
I enjoyed learning she thought this of faith-based art and writing, for example: “I believe one of the reasons for the lack of really true Christian art is first of all that we start with the answers. We begin with the cheerful assurance that we know the truth and so the search is the basis of art is thwarted (393).” I find that to be so true!
Through journal entries, I heard Elisabeth process her fundamentalist upbringing, and thoughtfully wrestle to keep what was true and helpful. As I got a glimpse of her grief after Jim’s death, I was shocked and disheartened to learn about the controlling nature of her second husband. And after she lost him to cancer and remarried, I shuddered to see that control continued and worsened with her third husband.
Reading her life, page after page, the good, the complex, I learned to see her as a full person, behind the public figure, well-known writer, and famed missionary. It is a long volume so dynamic and engaging it feels briefer than its length. I couldn’t put it down.
A Life gave me context for her faith and perspective on her impact on my generation. We can put our heroes on pedestals that make them less like a human and more like a god. Lost in admiration for their strengths, we run the risk of devoiding them of any flaws. After learning about some of her contradictions and seeing her flaws, I feel that my admiration for her matured. As did my understanding of American Christianity and a whole generation of conservative evangelicalism. Its flaws and virtues. And thereby my own faith’s.
“Our own goal is to know the right way. We don’t like to make mistakes. But God’s goal is developing ‘a lifelong process’ aimed at helping us and those around us to get to know the Guide (446)”. I resonate deeply with this sentiment and hear it as an honest reflection of a life in progress. Sometimes believers–including many who enthusiastically endorse her work–seem more concerned with the first part, to know the right way. Thinking we do, we spot all the mistakes outside of ourselves. There is no perceived passion to know God or help others know Him.
Her humanity, so nuanced and well-reflected in the book, helped me see the whole woman, Elisabeth Elliot more deeply. I came away with a deep respect I’ve always had for her faith. And able to see my faith as a young woman and my faith now, with discernment and humility. Lucy Austen’s work is phenomenal. Can’t recommend it enough!
I realize this edition of Food for Thought may not be very Christmasy (goofy photo notwithstanding), but I hope it might provide a gift idea for the right reader in your life, or a last-minute one for you:) I am looking forward to the Christmas Eve morning service at our new church, where Gus will be singing in the choir and we’ll both be participating in the Advent readings. Joy!
As we wrap up the year and take stock of what the last twelve months have carried, I want to take time for simple joys, reflection, and rest. I hope your days will afford you some of each as well. I will be back in the new year.
Dear reader, however, these last days of December find you, may God’s peace hold you. And may the hope that baby’s birth came to bring, cover you.
Merry Christmas, and a blessed 2024!
I am adding this to my list. Thank you.
Have you sent this to Lucy, Paola? I think she would be so blessed by your insightful reflection on her work. Really magnificent review. (And I share your maturing appreciation of her life!)