Ah, thrift stores: the haphazard museums of the recent past. As a girl with old-fashioned tastes, I’m sure to part with at least a few dollars to gain a favorite skirt, the most comfortable chairs, or some treasured books or music. I’ve met many close friends in thrift stores. Twila Paris, Point of Grace, Andrew Murray, and now Elisabeth Elliot, while hard to find in modern music aisles and bookstores, are familiar faces in the secondhand realms.
So it is that I find a copy of Passion and Purity: Learning to Bring Your Love Life Under Christ’s Control. What a sweet little book. Having received numerous letters and questions about romance and relationships, Elisabeth Elliot writes of her desire to keep the Lord as her first love, her courtship with Jim, and wisdom on the subject of relationships that she has gained over the years.

This is a short recommendation for the book, as I believe it could be a benefit to any woman. I was eager to read it as soon as I bought it, not because I as a single woman am eager to seek out the prospect of marriage. I used to be an avid story writer, and, being analytical, sometimes took tales of romance further and into more detail than is godly. The imagination wasn’t something Elisabeth Elliot directly addressed in these terms, but reading her gentle call to dedicate virginity to the Lord gave me a clearer opportunity to dialogue with the Lord about some of my thoughts, fears, and struggles in the area of romance.

Midway through the book, Elisabeth Elliot talks about some of the struggles women have with their interactions with men. I can identify in general with wanting to be controlling of my circumstances, even when that includes other people. While convicting, this was also very encouraging. I’ve never been much into hair or make-up or talking about boys, so in reading Passion and Purity, I got a chance to understand more fully who I am as a woman, though I be a rough and tumble one.

Perhaps the most significant way this book has impacted me is in fleshing out what it means to wait, and the value and beauty that comes from such an unexpected place. Again, I am coming to this book from a point in my life where I single, and willing to stay so. What I came to understand more personally in reading Jim’s letters and Elisabeth’s reflections is that the Lord has called me to wait on Him. Waiting is a struggle. Jim and Elisabeth were in love for five years before the Lord gave them permission to marry, and they thought often of each other in that time. In the same way, there is the wedding supper of the Lamb. I’m not there yet, but I long to be. Sometimes I feel that more should be happening in my life as I seek to follow the Lord, and wonder if I am doing something wrong that so little is happening around me. Perhaps He feels further from stirring my emotions than I would like. My life as a missionary has not “taken off” yet in the way I hope it will, and that can be hard to accept. What I appreciate is that this book is from the perspective of missionaries. So many biographies gloss over five or ten years in the second or third chapter, and dive right into the meat of the action. Of course books have to do that, but if you’re still living in chapter two, it can be easy to feel as though the calling has passed you by. Passion and Purity is a book about waiting. Those five years are given one hundred and eighty-eight pages of attention: a comforting reminder that the Lord has not forgotten a little heart that beats for Him, and that there is greater joy in the fulfillment for having waited.

I’ve written more of what I personally gained from reading this book, though there is certainly much more. The majority of what I gleaned was related to my relationship with the Lord. It is, of course, a book about a very human romance, so there will certainly be much to gain in that avenue, but all such relationships best begin with the Lord. For that reason, I believe this book would be a help and encouragement to all women, particularly those that seek after the Lord.

If you have read Passion and Purity, or have more questions about it, please feel free to comment. I would to hear from you and discuss it.

The Lord be near, my sisters.

Stop right there. Just go pre-order the book (click on the picture above). THEN come back and read all the reasons why. No, seriously…it’s THAT good. And I do not dole out compliments on books often. But this is one you just NEED to get. You can thank me later.

When I signed up to be a part of the launch team for this book, I had a feeling that this was going to be a tool God wanted to use to speak to my heart in a very particular way…but I really had no idea HOW meaningful it would be to my heart.

But, as I cracked it open for the first time earlier this week, and began to read, I couldn’t help but just shake my head and look heavenward. How did you know, God? HOW do you DO this?? How do you have someone on the other side of the world write a book that is SO…so…for ME?

As I sat and read this book, it was as if a dear friend was sitting beside me, speaking words straight from the Lord to MY heart. I could hardly bring myself to finish the last few chapters because I just didn’t want it to ever end. Someone understood. Someone who really, truly knows the Lord, in the truest sense of the word. Someone who had real truth to share with my heart, birthed out of having walked through the fire with the Lord, and having come out on the other side seeing His faithfulness. And it was like the sweetest fellowship you could ever hope for from the most kindred of hearts.

I could scarcely put the book down, and chapter after chapter, the tears tumbled down my cheeks.

Katie’s story is so raw. So heart-wrenchingly beautiful. So full of the reality that this life God has called us to is just not easy — nor was it meant to be easy…but He is WITH US. And He uses all of the brokenness of this world, and our own brokenness and wrestlings to draw us near. So close to His heart.

As she shared how she has found herself actually longing for the times of darkness and difficulty because she has found such a special closeness with the Lord through the midst of them, several memories of my own life flashed through my mind…and I had to nod, “Amen, Amen!” For I, too, have found this to be true. In fact, some of the MOST heart-wrenching circumstances of my life have become the greatest blessings, as they caused me to cling to Jesus with a fierce tenacity. And I would not trade the lessons He taught my heart as I walked through the midst of them, for being able to go back and have things work out differently.

“The invitation to experience sorrow and doubt and all those long nights WITH Him — THAT is favor.”

What do you do when your prayers have gone unanswered (ar at least, not answered in the ways you were hoping for)? What do you do when there is death instead of healing, heartache instead of comfort, and so, so much brokenness in this world that continually surrounds us?

Katie shares some of the bitter trials she has walked through since she wrote “Kisses from Katie”. She shares her wrestlings with the Lord — and perhaps you will see yourself in some of her struggles to hope…to trust…to understand why there is such heartache and pain in this world — and her triumphs, coming forth as she casts herself before the Lord, washing His feet with her tears poured out before Him day after day (and night after night), when the brokenness of the world around her was just too much to bear. Every bit of truth she shares in this book is tested by a life truly lived in the midst of the brokenness of this world — these are no trite quips written by a person sitting in their armchair by the fire in their multi-million dollar private mansion. These are truths birthed from pain, and springing forth from a life that is laid down for the sake of bringing Hope and life to those who are destitute.

From the depths of Katie’s weakness, the Lord showed HIS strength….and this book is SUCH a beautiful memorial to His faithfulness and power in spite of our weakness and wrestlings — our brokenness and scars. As she says so well:

 “All those cracks and holes and ruptures, they would be the places in my life where His glory would shine through.”

The resounding theme of this book is this: Those who hope in the Lord will never be disappointed (from Isaiah 49:23, Psalm 25:3)! We can cast all of the pain, and all of our weakness and burdens and fears upon Him…and know that He WILL come through. We can trust Him. We can HOPE in Him!

“When I hunger always for Him, even the hard satisfies. Even the grief gives way to joy. Even the bitter is sweet. Even in the dark, I can see His face. Because when we are looking for Him, we will always see Him. I have tasted of His goodness, and now I hunger for it.”

If you would like to pre-order this book (DO IT), watch the book trailer, or get more info on it, go to: https://amazima.org/daringtohope/

(Also, there is a special gift for those who pre-order this month!!)

And last, an excellent passage of scripture which sums up the book SO well:

Isaiah 49:13-16a