Lisa Barry: Is it possible to take one's commitment to Jesus Christ too far? Is it possible to be so engrossed in one's faith that it becomes detrimental? Today Elisabeth Elliot talks about the difference between being totally committed to Jesus Christ and striving for a balanced life in the eyes of the world. You'll be surprised at what you hear. Stay tuned for Gateway To Joy coming up next.

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, back again today talking about the subject of suffering. And you might entitle today's talk "The Deathblow."

I had a letter from a prisoner, who said to me, "You're a radical. You're a revolutionary." I think that's true. I think I have to admit the charge. I'm guilty as charged. But you know, my radical and revolutionary ideas are not original. They're very ancient, in fact. They come from the Gospel. And Jesus' claims on those who want to be His disciples are radical. And the changes that are going to be required of us who would follow Him all the way are going to have to revolutionary.

May I ask you, "Is the standard that I'm setting on this radio program too high?" Do the things I say make you feel so helpless, so guilty, and so useless that you just want to turn me off? Some of you have told me that that is exactly what you have done.

Well, please don't, because this woman that you're listening to is as guilty as all the worst. I am the chief of sinners. I know that I am fully capable of any crime in the books. And I know that God has forgiven me thousands, tens of thousands, probably-I hate to think of it-millions of sins. I have traveled the road longer than many of you, and therefore I am a greater sinner than many of you because I have had more opportunity.

And yet I call back over these more than 65 years and say to you, "God is faithful. He will help you. He will forgive you. He helps us. He loves us. He sees. He knows. He understands our weaknesses, our denials of Him, our deliberate sins-the ones that we plan and actually carry through with forethought." Yes, I'm guilty of that kind, too.

Well, I had a letter from a young pastor. He said, "I cannot get out of my mind something you said about the five missionaries who were killed." And he's referring to my first husband Jim Elliot and the four other American missionaries who were killed in South America in 1956.

"You said that they loved God and were willing to obey no matter what the calling was, even if it meant death, which to them it did. How does this translate into everyday life?" this young man wants to know. "How balanced should we be? Maybe I am taking this abandonment to Jesus Christ too seriously.

When I hear from supposedly strong, committed Christians that it's perfectly normal to be interested in everything from sports to music at the expense of their relationship to Jesus Christ, I wonder if I'm taking this abandonment too far, too seriously. Maybe it's only missionaries who need that kind of commitment.

Should the word balance even be in our vocabulary when talking about a relationship with Jesus Christ? And if not, what should our lives be like? What was Jim Elliot like? Was he a well-balanced person, or was he looked upon as being a little different because of his unreserved dedication to Jesus Christ?"

Well, I think I would have to say yes to both questions. He was a balanced person, but not in the world's terms. He was totally dedicated to Jesus Christ, and it really didn't matter to him whether he lived or died, so long as he could live or die with Christ. So I do appreciate that letter.

And I wrote back to that young man, "Don't listen to the people who tell you that you are taking this commitment to Jesus Christ too far." I don't think that's possible, if it's really commitment to Jesus Christ. We can take all sorts of things too far, like a legalistic view of life, our own ideas of how things have got to be in our lives. We can take things like that too far. But as for abandonment to Jesus Christ, how can we take that too far?

Jesus asked for total abandonment. He said, "If you're not prepared to sell everything you have, you cannot be My disciple." That is pretty radical, isn't it? That's pretty revolutionary.

The subject last week was suffering. I'm not sure whether I gave you this definition or not, but let me give it to you now. A very simple one: Suffering is having what you don't want or wanting what you don't have. And we must bring all our wants and our don't wants to the foot of the cross and surrender them to Jesus Christ.

Now I have been trying to give you some very deep spiritual truths, which apply to ordinary folks as much as they apply to the extraordinary. And they apply to ordinary events as well as they apply to the extraordinary. I've been reading you some of the quotations from Lillias Trotter, which appear in my book called A PATH THROUGH SUFFERING. She gives lessons from the world of creation.

She tells us this: "Within a few hours of fertilization, the throb of life has spread right through the flower, with this first result-that the petals begin to wither." Did you know that? That the petals begin to wither the very second that the flower is fertilized? In other words, fertilization marks the striking of the deathblow to all that went before.

It's not unusual for people who want to take up the cross of Jesus in the form of self-giving service and who go out gladly for God-it's not unusual for them to suffer very soon some deathblow. Does that mean they've made a terrible mistake? Sometimes that's our first question. Quite the opposite, I think. It may be the harbinger of fruit bearing. The surrender of themselves and their rights, the joyful acceptance of the heavenly vision is like the flower's opening itself to receive the pollen. The deathblow is struck.

My dear friends Phil and Janet Linton went to North Africa as missionaries. On a Tuesday, three weeks before their second baby was due, Janet's doctor proclaimed that all was well. On Wednesday, Janet became aware that the baby was not moving. That night she couldn't sleep. Phil prayed with her and tried to comfort her. Finally she slept a little, exhausted.

By 4:30 she was awake again, holding very still, listening, waiting. She knew the baby was gone. When the doctor's office opened, the Lintons were there. He could find no heartbeat. Hospital tests confirmed that the baby was dead. A C-section was performed and the baby was placed in Phil's arms, a beautiful face, a perfect little girl with black hair.

"Through my grief as I watched him hold her tiny body," Janet wrote, "and weep great sobs, his whole body shaking, I saw an incredible picture of a father's love, a father's heart. The doctor found no explanation for her death. He assumes it was what they call a cord accident, where somehow the baby crimped the cord and the blood supply was cut off."

Phil writes, "I remember standing next to Janet in the bonding room, holding Laura's body in my arms. And I kissed her cheeks and talked to her, knowing she wasn't there, but asking the Holy Spirit to help me in my weakness."

"Phil and Christopher," Janet says, "could be with me at anytime." Christopher was their two-year-old child. "And even at two, Christopher knew our hearts were broken and grieved with us. God's people showed us much love, but every step was incredibly painful, such as leaving the hospital with other mothers who had babies in their arms, then going to a clothing store for a little gown and having to explain to the sales clerk that it didn't really matter much about the style because our baby was to be buried in it.

Where in all this pain was God's love? I couldn't feel it. I was almost numb with pain. I think I wrote to you that my emotions were like a ship being tossed in a raging storm at sea. I could not feel the truth of God's love for me at the time. What it felt like was that God had dealt me a cruel blow, as with a whip.

But underneath all those raging emotions the truth lay. A lifetime of knowing Him had laid a strong foundation that quietly supported me. I knew with my mind and heart what went deeper than my pain-that Jesus showed us once and for all what He is like and what kind of love He has for us by dying on the cross. That is fact, history. Nothing, no circumstance, no matter how hard or painful, can change that."

And so Janet found her peace at the cross. You and I will never find peace in our trials and tribulations and sufferings, except at the cross of Jesus. I sent to her this quotation from Samuel Rutherford, a 17th century minister who had lost several children.

"Grace rooteth not out the affections of a mother, but putteth them on His wheel who maketh all things new, that they may be refined. Therefore, sorrow for a dead child is allowed to you, though by measure and ounce weights. The redeemed of the Lord have not a dominion or lordship over their sorrow and other affections, to lavish out Christ's goods at their pleasure. He commandeth you to weep, and that princely One took up to heaven with Him a man's heart to be a compassionate High Priest."

Lisa Barry: I think it's every mother's nightmare that all the planning and dreaming about that new little bundle of joy will be for naught. Maybe that's where you find yourself today. Maybe your baby died at only a few days old or possibly lost your baby to miscarriage.

Well, at the risk of sounding like I'm using a tragedy as a marketing tool, I want to tell you about a book that deals specifically with grief and how to deal with it. Elisabeth Elliot has asked many of the same questions that you're asking. Questions like why me, why now, and just plain why. If you're clamoring to make some order of the chaos of emotions, this is a good choice. The book is written by Elisabeth Elliot and it's called A PATH THROUGH SUFFERING.

The cost is $14. You can send that, along with your request, to Gateway To Joy, Box 82500, Lincoln, Nebraska, 68501. Or you can call us toll-free: 1-800-759-4JOY. Gateway To Joy has been a production of Back to the Bible.

Tomorrow Elisabeth talks about what the new life in Christ really is and how we could say yes to it with confidence. Be sure and be with us then for another Gateway To Joy.