I used to keep a daily journal of sorts.  I had this cool 10+ year journal that I kept up with for the full 10+ years.  Once I filled it up I stopped.  I don’t know why exactly because I had the same exact journal but for the next 10 years.  Perhaps it’s because most of what I wrote in there was what I had to eat that day.  Not especially exciting to read that I had scrambled eggs on March 21, 1999.  However, recently I was trying to remember someone’s birthday and with the switch of calendars, phones, etc. I’d lost track.  So I went back to my trusty journal and there it was, right at the top. 

On that particular day in 2004 I had gone to a local college to hear Elisabeth Elliot speak.  I could not believe it had been 10 years!  She’s one of those women who had a profound influence on my spiritual walk.   She and her husband were missionaries and he was killed early on in their marriage.  Later she went back and witnessed to these same people who had killed her husband.  There is even a movie based on this event that is pretty good if you haven’t seen it.  It is called “End of the Spear.”

Elisabeth Elliot also had a radio program called “Gateway to Joy”.  She would open with the following:  “You are loved with an everlasting love….and underneath are the everlasting arms.”  I always felt so comforted by those words.   She took this from Deuteronomy 33:27. 

The Sunday following my discovery that it had been 10 years since I’d heard Elisabeth speak we sang a song called “There is a Hope” written by Mark Edwards and Stuart Townend.  Here is the verse that got to me:

“There is a hope that lifts my weary head

A consolation strong against despair

That when the world has plunged me in the deepest pit

I find the Savior there

Through present sufferings future’s fear

He whispers courage in my ear

For I am safe in everlasting arms

And they will lead me home.”  (Verse 2, emphasis mine)

Perhaps this was just for me but my prayer is that as you read this you will find the same comfort.

“And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”  Isaiah 51:11

Have a great day!