When those with much by the world’s standards choose to surrender ownership and pursue radical generosity, their lives begin to reveal the true definition of success. Following God’s call means different things for different people, but unexpected joy and purpose are sure results.
Take for example, our friends Allie Eberle and Scott Friesen. They aren’t famous, but they’re well-known with the Lord for surrendering all they have in service to him and to the “least of these” in creative ways in Africa.
Allie’s story
Allie had a bright future as a newly minted graduate of a prestigious university on the fast track at a Fortune 100 tech company. Allie’s partying, self-indulgent university days had been punctuated by an experience that would haunt her for years to come. She spent a semester abroad in a Nairobi slum, hearing women the same age as her tell their stories of abuse, rape, and abandonment. When Allie returned to the spiritual slum of her university and continued her rise from success to success, she couldn’t unknow her time in Kenya.
After a few years wrestling with God, she found herself alone on the shore, looking up at the San Francisco Bridge. She was at an inflection point, and she knew that God was calling her back to Kenya to bring light and hope to the women she had met. But how could she walk away from everything she’d spent her life to achieve? Couldn’t she do more good by earning a big salary and paying for others to redress the poverty and lack of opportunity plaguing the shantytown half a world away?
Her arguments were met with God’s resolute words spoken into her soul, “Go back!” Overcome, Allie opened her clenched hands and turned her palms upwards to God. Resignedly, she forced out the words, “Take my life and use it for your good. I surrender everything to you.” With that, grace washed over her. Allie stepped off the ladder of financial success to pursue another kind of success.
When we visited Allie at the nonprofit she founded in Nairobi, we saw a young woman beaming with joy as she sought to sow hope amidst despair. At age 23, Allie had founded ROSE (Restoration of Sisters in the Extreme) Women’s Foundation, teaching women how to triple their annual income through a biblically based business training on bookkeeping, marketing, and management. All the business acumen she had applied in her Silicon Valley job was now being shared with young entrepreneurs founding Internet cafes and dress design businesses and produce markets.
Scott’s story
Scott reached his childhood dream of becoming a millionaire by age 40 after launching and selling three successful businesses. Scott had plans to become a full-time philanthropist and amateur golfer, but the Lord had other plans.
After a missions trip to Ethiopia in 2013, Scott responded to the biblical injunction in Ephesians 4:28: “Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need” (Ephesians 4:28). In Scott’s words, “I am called to work so that others may live.”
Scott’s revised plans led him to start multiple businesses in Africa, using his wealth to lift up the poor through his parent company, Verdant Frontiers. To date, he’s created a portfolio of over $180 million in assets in Africa, providing thousands of good jobs. Scott is using his God-given entrepreneurial skills to help African workers and their families flourish. Scott still lives in a comfortable Texas home with his wife and kids. He didn’t move to Africa and work in a slum like Allie did, but he’s no less God’s faithful servant.
Shifting our perspective from owners to stewards may keep us right where we are today, doing the same job we’ve done for a lifetime. Or not. The point is surrender – full, unconditional surrender of all we have.
Both Scott and Allie know they haven’t given up anything that God hadn’t already given them. They live in light of the reality that all they have is a gift of God to be used to serve others. Their lives reflect the apostle Peter’s admonition, “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms” (I Peter 4:10). Stewards – not owners.
Through the paradox of surrender, we give up our lives to get them back again, though sometimes with new dreams. When we stop owning and begin stewarding, we don’t feel like pawns in a cosmic drama but like partners in God’s redemptive work. The excitement that comes from seeing transformed lives becomes intoxicating. Allie and Scott felt that their self-surrender was hardly worth mentioning in light of all they had been given.
We invite you to join the riotously fun calling to steward all your gifts to serve others – and find out how much joy you’ve been missing.
