In 1879, England’s top art critic, John Ruskin, made a staggering offer to his most gifted student, a 26-year-old named Lilias Trotter. He would help her become the greatest living painter who would ​“do things that will be immortal.”

There was just one condition: she must give herself up to art.

After much prayer, Lilias turned down Ruskin’s offer and chose to pursue a different kind of immortal glory as a missionary to North Africa. 

This week on the podcast, Nathan Foster is joined by two Miriams — Miriam Rockness and Miriam ​“Mimi” Dixon — who open a window into the remarkable life of Lilias Trotter.

Lilias’s story raises questions: Couldn’t she have served God as a renowned artist? Wouldn’t that have glorified God more than decades of hidden work in North Africa that ended with little visible results?

Mimi Dixon speaks to this:

It looked like nothing much ever happened over 40 years [in Algeria]… but the impact of her life and her legacy is only now beginning to become visible. In a day when we talk about celebrities and big ministries… the words of Lilias Trotter have spoken very deeply into my life an encouragement to trust, ​“Do not despise the day of small things…” It’s about an obedience to follow Jesus where he’s going and trust him with outcomes.

It reminds me that for every Mother Teresa (now Saint Teresa of Calcutta), whose sacrificial love becomes famous, there are a million like Lilias whose sacrificial love remains obscure (on earth). 

This doesn’t mean we abandon the gifts God gives us. Miriam Rockness noted that Lilias didn’t throw art away to immediately become a foreign missionary. After Ruskin’s offer, she remained in England for a decade, ministering to the least in London before going to Algeria. And she continued to paint and draw for the rest of her life. 

Lilias’s choice was whether to ​“give herself up” to art or to give herself up to God — and God won her heart.

John Ruskin said, ​“What a waste.” But with God, nothing is wasted.

At the end of her life, rather than being celebrated publicly as one of England’s greatest artists, she was surrounded by the Algerian people whom she loved. When she was slipping into the next life, a friend asked, ​“Are you seeing many beautiful things?” She answered, ​“Yes, many, many beautiful things.”