Letter From Leland Eliason

At the conclusion of our first Transforming Church Initiative, "Following Jesus into Communities Devastated by HIV/AIDS", I overheard one of God’s great servants lament: "Sometimes when I hear of the needs of the world as we have today, I find myself saying I just don’t have anything more to give. I’ve given so much of myself away that I feel like I have to go and hide for a while." His sentiment caused me to reflect over four decades of ministry and the challenges of seeking to meet constant human need and alleviate acute suffering. How do we "keep on keeping on" when we feel like going away and hiding instead?

Retreat and rest for a while. Jesus did. There are several times recorded in the life of Christ where it is evident that healing time, or miracle-working time, or teaching time was over for the day. When Jesus heard that John the Baptist had been beheaded, Matthew 14 tells us that Jesus "withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place." If the Son of God set boundaries for His life, how can you and I expect to survive if we don’t also set boundaries? If we choose to rest on a regular basis, we won’t have to hide.

Make sure that you have a Sabbath day once a week. The Bible makes it clear that God prescribes margins for our lives. That was true for Adam and Eve – gardeners in a place without weeds! My parents believed that God intended farmers to take a day off each week. On Sunday we did minimal work – no barn cleaning, no seeding, no harvesting, no field work, no clearing land, no building granaries. I remember watching our neighbors work on Sunday and thinking they are going to get way ahead of us. But in the end, we seemed always to have as much work done as our neighbors did, with the bonus of a day off each week.

Don’t postpone indefinitely times that make life joyful. Just over a year ago, Carol and I were clinging to God through a valley. Physicians had found a renal cell carcinoma on Carol’s right kidney, and we weren’t sure whether or not it had metastasized. It was the longest November of our lives. We live now in deep gratitude for the prognosis – the entire tumor was removed and the invading growth had not spread. Our doctor pronounced her cancer-free. This November we bought plane tickets for her to accompany me on two extended trips – and both times we arranged a day just to be together without appointments or responsibilities. We no longer take for granted that we’ll have many years on into retirement to enjoy each other’s company.

Remember, we meet Jesus in those places from which we are tempted to flee! When we follow Him into communities devastated by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, for example, we’ll discover that He’s there ahead of us. And when we’re too weary to go on, the same Jesus who led us there will also lead us "to come apart and rest" (Mark 6:31). That’s how great our Lord is! One of my most helpful mentors once said, "We ought not to think of ourselves as buckets containing all that people need. Instead, kick the bottom out of the bucket and make it a conduit instead. Let God’s grace and blessing flow through you to others." That’s part of the secret to discovering that His burden is easy and His yoke is light. Once we understand that, we will no longer feel the need to go and hide.

Leland Eliason
Executive Director and Provost