Suffering Is Never for Nothing

by Elisabeth Elliot

What have you got in your hand to give to Him? Is it a gift that you recognize as a gift, a talent for example? Is it the willingness to be a mother and to take the criticism of the women who say that a woman who’s got half a brain will put her children in somebody else’s care and get out and do something “fulfilling”? Is it the willingness to take the flack from the rest of the world about something that you’ve decided to do for Jesus’ sake? Is it the willingness to be unrecognized, unappreciated? You know, we’ve got a very twisted idea of this word ministry. We think that a ministry means just a very short list of things: preaching or singing or doing a seminar or writing a book or teaching a Sunday school class. Of course those are ministry. They’re forms of service. But the word ministry just means service. And service is a part of our offering to God. People would think of my ministry as being my missionary work, my writing, my speaking. But you know, I don’t spend most of my life standing at a podium. I spend most of my life sitting at a desk, standing at a sink, standing at an ironing board, going to the grocery store, sitting in airports, doing a whole lot of things which are not anything for which I expect to get medals. They are moments to be offered to Jesus. Do the next thing.