"I tremble lest I should in any way offend my Eternal Lover."
- Jim Elliot -
From a letter to Elisabeth in Passion and Purity
I have recently, though not very stringently, been making my way through the book Passion and Purity by Elisabeth Elliot. I highly recommend this book, especially for any single young women out there, though I think she has a lot of good to say to women in any situation. This quote above snagged my attention so I can't quite get past it. I don't know why it came as such a shock. I've certainly heard God described as a lover before. Perhaps, it's because this quote came from a man writing to the woman he loved while in the course of deciding whether or not marriage might be in God's will for them.
As a single woman, I admit that I often think of love as something to be sought after. This is due to far too many factors to go into in the short time I have here. Suffice it to say that I certainly never considered that if I found love in the form of some delightful young man that I might make the conscious choice to put it (and him) aside to more fully follow my Lord. Perhaps, it is better then that I have never been given that choice, because I fear I would fail such a test. Though I desperately long to have a heart like Jim Elliot's, I often forget that God is, in fact, a being capable of greater depths of emotion than I am myself. And that he has chosen to love me. I should tremble at the thought of offending him. Not out of fear of punishment or separation, but because to offend someone who has done so much for me is wrong, and I should fear the kind of person that would make me.
Psalm 51
