Suffering Is Never for Nothing

by Elisabeth Elliot

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.

I’m convinced that there are a good many things in this life that we really can’t do anything about, but that God wants us to do something with.

The deepest things that I have learned in my own life have come from the deepest suffering. And out of the deepest waters and the hottest fires have come the deepest things that I know about God.

And so, what looked like a contradiction in terms: God loves me; God lets this awful thing happen to me. What looked like a contradiction in terms, I had to leave in God’s hands and say okay, Lord. I don’t understand it. I don’t like it. But I only had two choices. He is either God or He’s not. I am either held in the Everlasting Arms or I’m at the mercy of chance and I have to trust Him or deny Him. Is there any middle ground? I don’t think so.