by Caroline Shaw

Elisabeth Elliot was born in Brussels, Belgium to missionary parents. She graduated from Wheaton College and married a classmate, Jim Elliot. She went on to serve as missionary in Ecuador. Ten months after her daughter was born, Jim was killed by the Auca Indians. Elisabeth continued working among the Quichuas and later lived and worked among the Aucas. Elisabeth’s display of forgiveness spoke volumes to the Aucas and the Quichuas. In light of the recent violence our country has been inundated with her display of forgiveness can speak volumes to us as well. She is author of several books, a radio program “Gateway to Joy” http://www.gospelcom.net/bttb/listen/gwtj/ and snail newsletter The Gatekeeper.

“If God forgave us the way we forgive those who trespass against us sometimes, we’d all be in big trouble, wouldn’t we? Because we don’t necessarily forgive those people completely, freely, and forever. Sometimes we don’t forgive them at all.”Elisabeth Elliot from Gateway to Joy

So, come clean …how many times have you said I forgive you but you know in your heart you are still holding a grudge…you are going to let this wrong doing fester just a little more in your heart. What good will it do? Oh, you say, it will make me feel better….will it? Resentment, which stems from an unforgiving spirit causes all sorts of problems. It takes up energy that one could use in a positive manner. It colors our outlook on life eventually. We tend to look at others critically…after all they just might hurt us too.

“There’s something wonderfully liberating about tearing up the grievances. It’s possible to go through life lugging tremendous baggage of bitterness, resentment and hurt.” http://www1.gospelcom.net/bttb/listen/gwtj/text/gtjtday-08-24-98.html

Yes, baggage. How much baggage are you carrying? You have got to let go and forgive according to Elisabeth and according to every great thinker in Religious history. One of my favorites is the following: “And this last part of his prayer I think is desperately needed by us, perhaps by us women more than you men, because we are so emotional. Francis of Assisi writes, “O divine Master, grant that I may seek not so much to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.”http://www1.gospelcom.net/bttb/listen/gwtj/text/gtjtday-05-01-98.html

How eloquent…what truth! It is in pardoning that we are pardoned….What does a pardon mean? Freedom! Freedom from bitterness, sulking, freedom from a consuming black mood. Let go and be free. “Jesus goes much further than just forgiveness. He says, ‘You must love your enemies.’ And if we actually do this, then we Christians will be a living mystery–people whose lives make no sense apart from God. Who in his right mind would love an enemy? Nobody but the person with God’s love in his heart.”http://www1.gospelcom.net/bttb/listen/gwtj/text/gtjtday-04-10-98.html

It makes no sense that Elisabeth Elliot forgave those Auca Indians. Four men died along with Jim Elliot. Some thirty years later one of the five wives visited the spot where her husband was killed. She picked up a conversation with an Aucan (Waorani) woman who had been on the beach that day. The wife questioned the woman about the killings. The woman told her one of the missionaries on a previous trip had shown them a picture, which he pulled out of his pocket (the Waoranis had no concept of clothes and pockets.) The picture was of Dayuma, a woman who had left the Waoranis and befriended the missionaries. The tribe was puzzled. How could this woman come out of the man’s body and why was she flat? Their only assumption was that he had eaten her. Fear of the missionaries set in that day and the Waoranis had determined they would kill the maneaters! Elisabeth Elliot’s influence of a spirit of forgiveness cannot be ignored. We have road rage, student rage, wife beating, and many atrocious varieties of violent crime rampant in our nation.

Bottled up bitterness and black moods prevail. The culture of a forgiving spirit is probably the single most saving element a nation can inject into its youth. It must begin with us, with the moms, the aunts, the grandmoms. Let go, release the pain, the anger. Release our angry youth!

About the Author Caroline Shaw holds a B.S. degree from Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA in Secondary Education, English. She is a mom to six children and was caregiver for her mother with Alzheimers, and is the owner of A Mom’s Love website

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