This past week, I've been reading the biography "A Chance to Die: The Life and Legacy of Amy Carmichael" by Elizabeth Elliot (It is really good!). Amy Carmichael was an English missionary to India. She left everything to take the gospel there. She ended up dedicating her life to saving and raising children who were given to the temples to be temple prostitutes. Elliot describes Amy Carmichael's faith as "a faith that prized what the world despises (the Cross) and despised what the world prizes (all that dims the Cross)..." Carmichael herself put it this way in a poem she penned: "From all that dims Thy Calvary, O Lamb of God, deliver me."
Those words have haunted me a little. From all that dims the cross! Amy Carmichael does not go half way. There is only the Cross and all that dims the Cross. Do I put things in those categories? I feel that oftentimes I tend to look at things as "bad things of the world" and "good things of the world." I forget that anything that takes my eyes away from Jesus is an idol. From all that dims Thy Calvary, O Lamb of God, deliver me.
Amy wrote, "O to be delivered from half-hearted missionaries! Don't come if you mean to be turned aside by anything— for the 'claims of society' in the treaty ports and stations. Don't come if you haven't made up your mind to live for one thing— the winning of souls." Her single mindedness often made me uncomfortable as I read, probably because I'm nowhere near the standard she set for herself and others. I realized that my view of following Jesus can often be small. I am reminded of what John Piper wrote in his book "Let the Nations be Glad!" He said that God "is unwittingly belittled...It is possible to be distracted from God in trying to serve God." It's not just the things of the world that can dim the Cross, but also our own serving and doing.
I think that Amy Carmichael's words can be summed up in "Christ is all; everything else is nothing." Oh that we would have that same heart for Jesus. Carmichael was far from perfect, but she definitely had that right. Only Christ should have first place. His preeminence should dim everything else. Remember that old hymn, "Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus?" The chorus goes,
"Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace."
Either the Cross shall be dimmed or the things of earth. When we give one of them preeminence, it cannot help but be so. Which shall it be for us? Shall it be said of you and me that we prized what the world despises and despised what the world prizes? Shall this be our prayer, too? From all that dims Thy Calvary, O Lamb of God, deliver me!
