Many of you who know me know how deeply I have been touched by the life of Lilias Trotter. Her story has spoken to me in ways that few stories have and her influence will be etched in my heart forever. I am indebted to Elisabeth Elliot and Miriam Huffman Rockness and especially to our Lord and Savior for introducing me to her writings and bringing her story across my path. There are people that the Lord uses in each person's life to influence them and to challenge them--Lilias's story has strongly been used of the Lord in mine.
Take the very hardest thing in your life – the place of difficulty, outward or inward, and expect God to triumph gloriously in that very spot. Just there He can bring your soul into blossom. ~Lilias Trotter
Lilias's life was one that showed forth the sufficiency of Jesus Christ--and also illuminated the joy for me, of surrender. I understood through her life and example, both as a missionary to the Muslims in Algeria as well as her daily walk with the Lord, that the only life really worth living is the life lived out in surrender to the Father's will for one's life. Surrender is the pathway to joy. It may be a very painful, difficult road, but the only way to life and true, lasting peace.
I thank God for her writings, her example of obedience, and her great love for her "Father's world," and for her Great Father through her art and writings.
I was finally able to watch the recently-released documentary, Many Beautiful Things, about Lilias Trotter's life--and I happily and wholeheartedly recommend it. I liked Many Beautiful Things because I think that it whets one's appetite to read more about Lilias Trotter as well as read her writings. It is definitely by far not a complete glimpse into her life, but provides enough detail to be satisfying, edifying, and encouraging. A lot of the focus in the documentary is given to her struggle to release Art as her main passion--to me, it is more of an artistic interpretation of her life rather than a heavily-detailed fact by fact analysis. Which is why I would encourage people to watch the documentary as well as read the book, A Passion for the Impossible, by Miriam Huffman Rockness for a more in-depth account of Lilias's life. Both are tremendously spiritually encouraging and uplifting. I also loved the little coffee table book, A Blossom in the Desert: Reflections of Faith in the Art and Writings of Lilias Trotter. It is a beautifully illustrated book containing her artwork and quotations.
Surrender--stillness--a ready welcoming of all stripping, all loss, all that brings us low, low into the Lord's path of humility--a cherishing of every whisper of the Spirit's voice, every touch of the prompting that comes to quicken the hidden life within: that is the way God's human seed-vessels ripen, and Christ becomes "magnified" even through the things that seem against us. ~Lilias Trotter
And as a side note, I would also encourage this beautifully-illustrated and written children's book about Lilias Trotter--my little daughter loves it! This short book depicts Lilias's life for young children and gives them a curiosity about who she was and how she served the Lord in the slums of London as well as in North Africa. It is definitely worth adding to your library.
If you have never read the writings of Lilias Trotter, they are the best way to get to 'know" her on a deeper, more profound level. Her Parables of the Cross is a beautiful, rich book about walking closely with the Savior through surrender.
I hope that learning about this beautiful servant of God will encourage you toward a closer walk with our Lord and Savior; I know that her life has touched mine deeply.
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