Lisa Barry: Today on Gateway To Joy, we have two special guests in the studio. Elisabeth Elliot's husband, Lars, is with us and Bob Lepine is here as well. Many of you will be familiar with Bob, having heard him on FamilyLife Today with Dennis Rainey.

As we near the end of the 12 1/2-year run of Gateway To Joy, it seemed fitting to reminisce a little bit on the life and legacy of Elisabeth Elliot. Bob will lead that discussion and I can't think of a better place to start than with an issue that Elisabeth has been talking about for years, "worry." I know you will enjoy their conversation, so get comfortable and get ready for this Tuesday edition of Gateway To Joy. Here's Elisabeth!

Elisabeth Elliot: "You are loved with an everlasting love," that's what the Bible says, "and underneath are the everlasting arms." This is your friend Elisabeth Elliot, talking today with my friend, Bob Lepine.

Bob Lepine: It's a treat for me to be here and we're going to talk today about the subject of "worry." I know one of the things, as you have done this program over the last 12 years, is be astounded by the response from people who will hear you say something and God will use what you have said in a powerful way in their lives. You confessed on the program before, that worry has been an issue for you, correct?

Elisabeth Elliot: Definitely, I could blame some of it on my father. My father made no bones about the fact that he was a worrywart. I guess I got the genes from him. I can still see him when he would come home from the office. He was editor of a magazine called "The Sunday School Times," so some of our old listeners would know what that magazine was about. It was for Sunday school teachers!

But he would come home and I can still see him sitting at the head of the table at suppertime, sometimes with his hand on his forehead just looking so desperate and so helpless. So I probably took my cues from my father. I did a lot of worrying and I know my father began teaching us not to worry the way he did, and that God had been dealing with him over the years. I'm sure it made a big difference before he actually died.

In my own experience, I am constantly tempted to worry. I did a lot of worrying about just this time with you, Bob. I knew that Lars was also going to be here and this was a whole new direction. We hadn't done anything quite like this before. But I was reminded of what George MacDonald says in one of his books, "The care that is filling your mind at this moment, or but waiting until you lay the book aside to leap upon you--that need which is no need, is a demon sucking at the spring of your life."

His friend says, "No, mine is a reasonable care, an unavoidable care indeed."

His friend says, "Is it something you have to do this very moment?"

The man says, "No."

"Then you are allowing it to usurp the place of something that is required of you this moment."

"There is nothing required of me at this moment," says his friend.

"Nay, but there is, the greatest thing that can be required of a man!"

"Pray, what is that?"

"Trust in the living God!"

"I do trust Him in Spiritual matters."

"Everything is an affair of the Spirit."

I had copied that on a 3x5 card and gave it to my father and he carried it until he died. And only recently I lost that little 3x5 card, but I knew where I had gotten these words from.

Bob Lepine: Your husband, Lars, is with us in the studio today. Lars, welcome to Gateway To Joy!

Lars Gren: Well, thank you.

Bob Lepine: Are you a worrier, as well?

Lars Gren: I haven't really thought too much about it. I think I do my portion of worrying, but I don't have the resources as Elisabeth has, to sort of offset it by all these good old writings and all. But again, you worry and then you say, "I trust the Lord for it," and then you put it out of your mind. To me, the next thing I know, five or ten minutes later, I'm worrying again.

When Elisabeth says she's a worrier, she's got five siblings and four out of those five are also worriers. There's only one that came out without worrying. Do you remember? Your brother Dave was probably about four years old when your dad was singing something about...

Elisabeth Elliot: "When upon life's billows, you are tempest tossed, when you are discouraged, thinking all is lost."

He was standing in the bathroom watching my father shave and my father was singing this song and Dave said, "But I never did think all was lost!"

Lars Gren: Four years old, the only one that came out of the family without being a worrier!

Bob Lepine: The optimist.

Lars Gren: Everything, all his life, has just gone smooth as silk.

Elisabeth Elliot: Now he would take issue with that, Lars. I'm sure he would say it wasn't quite that smooth, but he is much more cheerful, I think, than the rest of us.

Bob Lepine: In your book, The Music of His Promises, one of the things you say is that, "It is quite impossible simultaneously to believe God and to worry."

Elisabeth Elliot: Did I say that?

Bob Lepine: Yes, I have it right here in front of me!

Elisabeth Elliot: Well, I need to review things like that. I believe it. I really believe it's true. I'm sure God knew exactly what He was doing in putting me in the position in which I have been because He knew that a teacher has to be able to set an example to the students. I think of my radio audience, some of them, as students of course, and have been greatly taught by the Lord. And I wish I could say that I have conquered worry. I don't think I can quite honestly.

Bob Lepine: I think all of us face experiences throughout our day that cause us some level of anxiety, wonder. We don't know what's around the corner, we don't know what's coming next, but as you say, that worry is a call for us back to faith, isn't it?

Elisabeth Elliot: Yes, and we only have today. Things we worry about are usually in the future. We can't do a thing about what has happened in the past, but we can look back. If you are anything like me I guess you can look back and worry about, did I do the right thing then or should I not have done so and so? Yesterday is gone and tomorrow is not here so we have to take ourselves by the scruff of the neck and say, "This is the day which the Lord hath made. I will rejoice and be glad in it."

Bob Lepine: I did a word search on the word "worry" in the Bible. Every time it is used there are two words used right before it: "Do Not" worry. The regular call of Scripture over and over again is not to worry. Jesus talked about that in Matthew 6, "Don't worry about what to eat." Those passages keep calling us back to faith, don't they?

Elisabeth Elliot: Absolutely.

Bob Lepine: One of the other things you've said in your book is, "Fear arises when we imagine that everything depends on us. We assume burdens God never meant us to carry. How much better to take whatever is troubling us immediately to God, confess our helplessness and perplexity and then do the next thing."

Elisabeth Elliot: Shall I read that poem?

Bob Lepine: Yes.

Elisabeth Elliot: "Do The Next Thing"

Well, from an old English parsonage,
down by the sea
There came in the twilight
a message to me;
It's quaint Saxon legend,
deeply engraven,
Hath, as it seems to me,
teaching from Heaven.
And on through the hours
the quiet words ring
Like a low inspiration--
"DO THE NEXT THING!"

I found this little card after my mother had died. She had often talked about these four words: Do the Next Thing. But I did not know where the source of it was until I found in her little red notebook these words. So the second stanza says:

Many a questioning, many a fear,
Many a doubt,
hath its quieting here.
Moment by moment,
let down from Heaven,
Time, opportunity, guidance,
are given.
Fear not tomorrows,
Child of the King,
Trust them with Jesus,
"DO THE NEXT THING!"

Do it immediately;
do it with prayer;
Do it reliantly, casting all care;
Do it with reverence,
tracing His Hand
Who placed it before thee with
earnest command.
Stayed on Omnipotence,
safe 'neath His wing,
Leave all resultings,
"DO THE NEXT THING!"

Looking to Jesus, ever serener,
(Working or suffering)
be thy demeanor,
In His dear presence,
the rest of His calm,
The light of His countenance
be thy psalm,
Strong in His faithfulness,
praise and sing,
Then, as He beckons thee,
"DO THE NEXT THING!"

Bob Lepine: You pulled that card and started to read, but you didn't need to read for very long. That's something that is imprinted on your heart and your soul. And I'm sure there are many days or many hours when as worry begins to plague you, you have to train your mind to, "Do the next thing!"

Elisabeth Elliot: Yes, when I finish doing the breakfast dishes, I know "the next thing" is to go upstairs and sit down in my study. Sometimes I turn on my computer; quite seldom though, because I'm not very good at computers. Or I sit down at my typewriter and I, "do the next thing." Then when it's time for lunch, as I'm going down the stairs, I'm just saying these words again, What is the next thing? I have to feed my husband. He's expecting to have a little lunch.

Bob Lepine: Lars, you are well provided for, aren't you?

Lars Gren: I have been well provided for, couldn't be better!

Bob Lepine: If someone is trapped with worry, he just can't seem to break free from it, what do you suggest to him?

Elisabeth Elliot: Well, there are many wonderful passages in Scripture, but I love the verse in Isaiah 50:7, "Because the sovereign Lord helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore, have I set my face like a flint and I know that I shall not be put to shame." I think if we just remember those first few words, "Because the sovereign Lord helps me," He's there, He understands perfectly what our problems are, He is there in order to help us!

If only we had enough sense to turn to Him immediately, instead of stewing and fretting and worrying about what the next thing might be. "I know that I will not be put to shame."--if I do what He tells me to do at that time.

Lisa Barry: With those insightful words, we'll bring this program to a close. I'd like to thank Bob Lepine for being with us today. In fact, he'll be spending a good part of this week with us, so we'll look forward to another visit with him tomorrow.

Everyone here at Gateway To Joy wants this program to change your life for the better. We are committed to that. It's not a ratings game for us, though we want as many people who would be helped by this program to listen. Everyone on our staff is being changed by what we hear, just as you are. So we come boldly, yet humbly, to ask you to be a part of this outreach.

We know that God is using this program in miraculous ways, many of which will never be seen in this life. The only reason this kind of live transformation is happening is because people like you are praying. We'd like to ask for your continued prayer especially now. Help us bring the Good News of Christ to the outer- most parts of the world.

If you'd like to write and let us know you are praying our address is Gateway to Joy, Box 82500, Lincoln, NE 68501. That's Gateway to Joy, Box 82500, Lincoln, NE 68501 or call anytime toll free 1-800-759-4Joy, that's 1-800-759-4569 or if you're on the Internet you can try gatewaytojoy.org.

Gateway To Joy has been a production of Back to the Bible. Bob and Elisabeth will be back again tomorrow with some special encouragement for young people. Make it a point to join us then for the next Gateway To Joy!

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