In her book Shadow of the Almighty, Elisabeth Elliot reveals much about the life and heart of her husband, Jim, through his journals and personal letters to family members and to herself. Jim Elliot (1927-1956) was one of five missionaries killed by the Auca Indians in Ecuador. The following excerpts illustrate Jim’s dedication and focus on the spiritual rather than the temporal.
Speaking of education in general: “The acquisition of academic knowledge (the ‘pride of life’) is a wearing process and I wonder now if it is all worth while…What thing better can a man know than the love of Christ, which passes knowledge? Oh, to be reveling in the knowledge of Him, rather than wallowing in the quagmire of inscrutable philosophy!”