IT’S NO WASTE

No one really wants to waste his or her life. Everyone wants his life to count for something.  However, how, what and who you expend your life on will ultimately determine whether you’re wasting it or not. While God has given your life to you as a gift, you still reserve the singular honor and right to determine how you will live it. Every human is like a candle that is lighted to burn and produce light. Just as the candle can serve different purposes in a room, so also your life. Some candles can burn in the room for people to see in order not to stumble; some burn to help people read or write books; some can just burn away in the room without serving any particular purpose.

Though your life is likened to a burning candle, you may want to ask yourself a very simple question: ‘What am I burning for?’

Five young missionaries, having not preached one single message to the Waodani tribe in Ecuador, were killed on their first direct contact with the people. They burnt their candle for the unreached people of Waodani. Today, the people of Waodani have heard and received the gospel which they never heard from these five missionaries. They were killed on January 8, 1956.

Prior to the death of these five missionaries, two of them made profound statements which had become a great quote till date. Jim Elliot, one of the five said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose”. It was obvious that Jim Elliot could keep his life (candle) beyond 1956, but he gave it up in order to gain that which he cannot lose eternally.

The second missionary of the five, Nate Saints said, “People who do not know the Lord ask why in the world we waste our lives as missionaries. They forget that they too are expending their lives…and when the bubble has burst, they will have nothing of eternal significance to show for the years they have wasted.”

The people of this world and lukewarm believers thought that ardent lovers, servants and followers of the LORD are wasting their lives, but in actual fact, they are the true definition of wastage. The Lord knows that nothing on earth worth the investment of your life except Him. He therefore warned that anyone who will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for His sake shall find it. (Matthew 16:25).

After the death of these five missionaries, Elisabeth, widow of Jim Elliot and Rachel, sister of Nate Saint, returned to the jungle years later. They were able to establish a peaceful relationship with the Waodani. The translation of the bible was done into Waodani. One by one, the men who committed the murder became believers. So, what seems to be a waste of five lives, years later, has been translated into spiritual awakening of the Waodani.

The killings of these five missionaries and the bold steps of two of their relatives to work amongst the Waodani thereafter could be termed as great waste and reckless abandonment of their lives, but the Lord has made their seeming ‘wastage’ to bring great light and salvation to the Waodani people in Ecuador.

Dear laborer, you must know and be well established in the comfort that your labor is not in vain. Your labour is not unknown. The scripture says that God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love… (Hebrews 6:10).

In Matthew 26 and John 12, a woman with alabaster box of very precious ointment, poured it on Jesus’ head. But when his disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, “why this waste?”

While the disciples were seeing the woman’s reckless offering of this precious ointment on Jesus as mere wastage; Jesus saw a good deed that is preparing him for his burial and that will go far with the gospel.

What is your precious ointment that you’ve been holding unto? God expects you to break up your alabaster box today for the release of the oil and its fragrance. Without the breaking of your alabaster box (life), the fragrance of the oil(treasure) will not fill the room (earth). Your life will not bring forth any gain or treasure (fragrance) to your world, until your alabaster box (life) is broken forth like a waste.

Until all on the alter is laid, there can’t be awakening amongst the nations and revival in our churches.

You must know that your life is not a waste but a living sacrifice that will bring forth great gain to God’s kingdom and draw many generations to the path of righteousness in God.

Source of Jim Elliot story:  Christiandaily.com/news/faith- Faith and tragedy in the jungle; 69 years after the missionaries in Ecuador.