By Brenda Cannon Henley
One of the things that I am grateful for that I was encouraged to do as a young Christian by my pastor and employer at a very large church in Georgia was to read. That wasn’t a tall order for me because I loved to read and had been reading since I was a young child due to the influence of a favorite uncle. Our pastor enjoyed reading biographies of people that had gone before us and he was especially attracted to pastors, lay leaders, musicians, and outstanding Christians in many fields. He also enjoyed reading about the lives of Bible characters, and he believed we could each learn from every life we studied in detail.

That was a good habit and I am glad that I adopted it and have kept it current in my adult life. My son, who is now a pastor in St. Petersburg, Florida, also loves to read, and when time permits, we share stories about people we have met through the pages of books. Ted and my grandson, Steven, just built me two more new bookcases because mine were overflowing with gracious gifts from loved ones and books I have found on sale, in castaway bins, and in bookstores.

I can remember from my early days of reading learning about Corrie Ten Boom, a wonderful Christian lady caught up in the concentration camps. Her story was dynamic the first time I read it and it is dynamic today. I later, with permission, took her life story and broke it down into teachable lessons for the young people of our church. One great lesson among many that I learned from her life was about God’s timing. His timing and ours are seldom the same. We pray and we want an answer. God doesn’t always answer on our timetable, but He is always on time.

The illustration Corrie gave was that she delighted in traveling with her father whom she loved dearly. They often rode the train and Corrie could hardly wait to get to the station, mounting the heavy metal steps, and finding herself actually on the train. She had a habit of wanting to be responsible for the tickets from the time her father purchased them until they handed them over to the conductor. Because her father was a wise man, he always kept the tickets until just before they approached the train depot and only handed them to Corrie just in time to pass on to the conductor. I rather think that is somewhat like God with His children. He knows that if we had the answer to our request too soon, we might not take care of it properly. We might get busy and lose it. We perhaps would not be prepared when the time came. He only puts what we most need into our waiting hands and hearts as we need it. I will never forget this lesson from Corrie.

Another book that influenced my life greatly in those early days of learning was Through Gates of Splendor written by the wife of Jim Elliott, Elisabeth. I learned many things about these valiant missionaries to Ecuador, and one was very practical and served me well over the years of my career. I learned that Elisabeth, traditionally spelled Elizabeth, preferred her name with an “s” instead of the usual “z,” and I learned to be careful to watch for proper spellings of all names in anything I might write.

Through Gates of Splendor, (1957) a bestselling book telling the story of Operation Auca, an attempt by five American missionaries, Jim Elliott, Pete Fleming, Ed McCully, Nate Saint, and Roger Youderian, to reach the Huaorani tribe of eastern Ecuador. The tribe ultimately killed all five men and Elisabeth’s work is documented by letters and writings gathered after their deaths. I cried as I read of the sacrifice of these men of God and how much they loved those they were trying to reach.

Jim Elliott was a wonderful Christian and gave his life to what he believed in doing. His journal entry, found after his death, for October 28, 1949, helped shape my young life. “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose,” wrote Elliott.

These two books helped to change my life and I treasure their inclusion in the teaching God had for me.

Brenda Cannon Henley can be reached at (409) 781-8788 or at [email protected].

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