Key Scripture:

“I said in my heart with regard to the children of man that God is testing them that they may see that they themselves are but beasts. For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity. All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return. Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth?” Ecclesiastes 3:18-21

Devotional:

“It’s not when you’re born or when you die, but the dash that matters.”¹

Days after my dad’s unexpected passing last year, he returned to dust and all that was left was a commonplace vessel inscribed with his name and the dates in which he lived here on earth: 1964 – 2022.

1964 marked the beginning of his life here on earth.
2022 marked the end of his life on earth and his future in…

As a follower of Jesus, I know that for every single one of us, there is a day coming when we will stand before God and give an account for our days. And even though the Lord desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth,² my dad is evidence that not all people will come to the saving knowledge that is found only in the person and work of Jesus.

Night after night at our church’s Saturated event, I would put my hand on my chest, and I would just sit during worship and recite the words of Job over and over again, “For I consider all things I don’t know too wonderful for me to understand.”³

Why didn’t I have the chance to say goodbye? Too wonderful for me to understand.
Why didn’t my dad come to saving knowledge of Jesus? Too wonderful for me to understand.
Why does God exercise His freedom in choosing one person and not another? Too wonderful for me to understand.

While I still haven’t found the answers to those questions on this side of heaven, I am more sure than ever of this: that even though we all are “from the dust and to dust all return,”⁴ how we choose to live our days here on earth in between the “from” and “return” matters like crazy for both us and the people around us.

Few people have walked out that reality as well as Jim and Elisabeth Elliot.

In the early 1950’s, Jim Elliot felt that the Lord was impressing the Auca Indians on his heart. Despite the Auca’s having a reputation for being violent and dangerous, Jim and his team believed that every single person mattered because they are created in the image of God. In their own words, “They had no choice but to willingly obey Him and take the good news to every nation.”⁵

A few years later, Jim and his team set out to give away the gospel and instead lost their lives at the hands of the Auca people, leaving behind their wives and small children. Despite the loss of her husband, Elisabeth continued her training and in the months to come, she would move into the same village, share the gospel and the Auca people would come to believe. And as a result, the eternal destiny of generations to come would be changed forever.

Jim and Elisabeth came from dust and have since returned to dust, but one thing can be for certain, heaven looks a little different because of the way they lived their lives here.

The relationship between God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility is complex and mysterious in nature. For the Elliot’s, it was in God’s sovereignty that He would place the Auca Indians on Jim’s heart according to His good will and purpose ⁶, but that would have been left incomplete without their responsibility to be obedient to God’s call on their lives to share the gospel with them.⁷

Similarly, as those who are being transformed into the likeness of Christ Jesus, our role in partnership with the Holy Spirit, is to go and share the gospel. In doing so, God is simultaneously calling sinners unto Himself by grace through faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ, for the power of God unto salvation is not in us but in the gospel itself. Salvation of the lost doesn’t rely on us; however, there is an urgency for us to proclaim it.

Unlike the Elliots, when God impressed my dad on my heart two weeks before his passing, I ignored the nudge. I was busy. I didn’t want to be inconvenienced. And I didn’t want to get hurt again. And in doing so, not only did I miss the potential opportunity to reconcile an estranged relationship, but more importantly I may have missed the opportunity to share an invitation that could have changed his life for eternity if he was willing to accept it.

While I can’t change what was, I do have a newfound understanding that an empty tomb does not negate the very real reality that every single person we meet is going to heaven or to hell and that we carry the good news of Jesus. And we are told to give that good news away, yet oftentimes we’re more concerned with what’s comfortable instead of what’s eternal.

Proverbs 11:30 says, “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life and whoever captures souls is wise.” So, who do you need to start praying for again? What phone call do you need to make? What people group do you need to go to? For as it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”⁸

And in our obedience, may some be saved, may God get the glory, and may we experience the joy.

Deepening questions:

• Who have you stopped praying for that you need to start praying for again?
• Who has God called you to take the good news of the gospel to that you haven’t?

Further reading:

Romans 9-10

Footnotes:

¹ Linda Ellis. The Dash Poem ² 1 Timothy 2:4 ³ Job 42:3 ⁴ Ecclesiastes 3:20 ⁵ Elisabeth Elliot and Joni Eareckson Tada. Suffering Is Never for Nothing. ⁶ Romans 9:11-12 ⁷ Romans 10:9-10 ⁸ Romans 10:15