Publisher’s Preface
Publisher’s Preface
Elisabeth Elliot died on June 15, 2015 at her home in Magnolia, Massachusetts. At the time of her death, she had suffered dementia for many years and was undoubtedly ready to go be with the Savior of whom she taught so many so faithfully. I know that she did this because she taught me. I didn’t have the opportunity to meet her until late in her life, when dementia had already stolen her voice, but her words will always be seared in my heart and mind.
Hear the call of God to be a woman. Obey that call. Turn your energies to service. Whether your service is to be to a husband and through him and the family and home God gives you to serve the world, or whether you should remain, in the providence of God, single in order to serve the world without the solace of husband, home, and family, you will know fullness of life, fullness of liberty, and (I know whereof I speak) fullness of joy.
That quote, from Let Me Be a Woman, is one of hundreds that have challenged, encouraged, frustrated, and led me in my walk with God. Having not grown up in the church, I didn’t learn of Elisabeth Elliot until she was already in declining health and had stopped publishing and recording her radio program. I was first exposed to her ministry in Through Gates of Splendor and I was quickly hooked on her writing.
Years later, as a publisher, I met a close friend of Elisabeth’s. This friend had been discipled by Elisabeth for several years and a deep friendship had developed prior to her illness. This friend knew that I had been shaped by her books and had consumed all the teaching content I could find, so she sent me a gift that has borne much fruit. It was a set of six CDs that were called “Suffering Is Not for Nothing.” I listened to these CDs and was amazed. Not only was it, I thought, perhaps her best content ever, it was some of the best teaching content I’d ever heard from anyone. I was able to get some additional copies of the CDs, which I gave to several close friends as gifts, and they all raved about the influence of the content on their lives as well.
Years went by, and I never stopped thinking about the clarity of the teaching on suffering that I had heard on those CDs. I just knew that the content would make an incredible book. Then in 2012, I had the opportunity to travel with our mutual friend who had given me the CDs, Elisabeth, and her husband, Lars Gren, to some events in Texas.
Elisabeth was in poor health and unable to communicate verbally. But there would be moments in which I could see the clarity of those piercing blue eyes connect with mine, she would grip my hand, try to speak, and I knew that she was in there understanding. I told her how God had used her in my life, and in the lives of hundreds of thousands of young women who would never have the privilege to tell her as I was then. At one point I found myself filled with anger toward God as I watched her struggle, trying to communicate. I couldn’t understand how He would allow this incredible woman who had given Him so much to suffer in this way.
And then I heard her voice in my head say, “The cross is the gateway to joy.” And was there any greater suffering than on the cross? I realized that the suffering I was observing was in no way inconsistent with the message she taught her entire life. She suffered much, and she always taught us through it. She finished well because she lived well.
It will be more than six years after that trip with her and nearly four years after her death when this book is published. It is a very slight adaptation of that set of CDs that I received many years ago. Never before published in book form, this material was originally delivered by Elisabeth at a small conference over the course of six sessions. I have edited only that content which will allow you, as a book reader, to not be distracted by references to “sessions,” “yesterday’s lesson,” or things such as temporal references that have now shifted. It has been my effort to retain the distinct, clear voice of a woman and a writer.
It is my prayer that this book will re-introduce the work of Elisabeth Elliot to a new generation, while continuing to deepen the seeds she has already planted for so many of us.
Finally, re-reading this, I feel she would not appreciate all this adoration for her, so I must acknowledge that Elisabeth Elliot, although gifted and faithful, was a woman like any other. She was imperfect, a sinner, and was quick to admit it. What was extraordinary about her was the light of Christ that showed through all the cracks created in her by the extraordinary experiences she suffered.
But it was never for nothing.
Jennifer Lyell
October 2018