By now we’ve all most likely seen the
“Twenty-Something Things to Do Before You’re Twenty-Something” articles – and
probably more of them than we wanted to. Some were good, and some were . . . well, you’ve seen them too.
At the risk of sounding
like a raving lunatic, I’d like to give a list of my own. Except this list has
only one item.
Die.
Now at the risk of
sounding like a raving lunatic with a strange death wish, I’m going to try to
explain what on earth I mean.
I’m talking about dying
to myself. Dying to myself enough to be willing to risk whatever it takes – my
comfort, my time, my dreams, my health, my possessions, and yes, even my life
if necessary – to make Christ known among the peoples who have yet to hear of
Him.
“I have no intention of throwing my life way – that
is not my decision; my life belongs to Christ. But if following Christ means
risking my life so that others may know Him, I don’t think that is too great a
price.”
Why before age 29?
January 8, 1956.
58 years ago today, five men, Ed McCully, Roger Youderian, Jim Elliot, Pete
Fleming, and Nate Saint, gave their lives for the gospel on a remote river bank
in Ecuador while trying to reach a hostile tribe, the Waodani, then known as
the Aucas. Jim and Ed were both 28.
Their courageous
example “set into motion events that brought most of the hostile Waodani to
faith in Christ. It also served as the impetus for thrusting tens of thousands
of missionaries into virtually every country of the world in subsequent decades”
(David Sitton, Reckless Abandon).
Why would five men in
the prime of life be willing to risk death to reach one group in a remote
Ecuadorian jungle?
It could only be that
they had found a purpose bigger than life itself. The same purpose Paul found:
“I do not account my life of any value nor as
precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I
received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God”
–
Acts 20:24
Ed McCully, in his 1950
letter to Jim Elliot explaining his decision to forego law school, writes about
this purpose:
“I have one desire now – to live a life of reckless abandon for the
Lord, putting all my energy into it. Maybe he'll send me some place where the
name of Jesus Christ is unknown.”
They had figured out
something about life:
“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain
what he cannot lose.”
– Jim Elliot
What about me? What
about us? And most importantly, what about the more than 7,200 unreached people
groups in the world?
According to the Joshua Project, of the nearly 17,000 people groups
of the world, over 7,200 (more than 40% of the world’s population) are unreached.
And the majority (85%) of these unreached people groups is in the 10/40 Window, a region dominated by Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism.
Many of these unreached
and unengaged peoples “are unreached (and unengaged) for a reason. They are
profoundly hostile to the gospel. But the suffering and martyrdom to come – and
they will come – will not be a setback for our sovereign Savior” (John Piper, A Holy Ambition).
Profoundly hostile to
it – but in desperate need of it.
Can these peoples be
ignored? Are they beyond the scope of the Great Commission’s “all nations”?
“Are we willing, as the first disciples were, to be
the first to go into danger and possibly even to die there in order that those
who come behind us might experience the fruit of our sacrifice? What if such
sacrifice is exactly what it will take for many of the unreached people in the
world who are presently hostile to the gospel to one day surrender their hearts
to Jesus?”
– David Platt, Radical
But no one will be able
to risk much – definitely not their life – for a God they don’t know.
I doubt any Athenian
Paul addressed on Mars Hill would have sacrificed much, if anything, to their
“Unknown God,” just one among a plethora of other deities. And certainly none
of them would have died for that God.
Too often, that’s just
how I live. Obligatory homage to a God I know far too little about, while a
hundred idols clutter my life.
I must know this God,
because “being deeply satisfied in Christ as your supreme treasure forever is
the motive power to lay down your life in love for the good of the nations” (John Piper).
“The power for life-reorienting giving for missions
and life-risking going in missions, for suffering and for martyrdom, is the
enjoyment of the one whom we preach.”
– John Piper, A Holy Ambition
I must know this God
who left His home for the express purpose of suffering an excruciating death to
save me if I am ever going to have the courage to leave mine to tell anyone
about Him.
“Let us run with endurance the race that is set
before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for
the joy that was set before him endured the cross.”
– Hebrews 12:1-2
I’m writing this post
for myself. Because I’m tired and I need a reminder of this great global
purpose. Because I feel like I don’t have the energy to spend getting to know
this glorious, global God. Because I’m going to have to make a lot of decisions
about my future in the next few years, and I want each of them to count in some
way for this global mission.
I’m writing this from a
comfy couch in a safe neighborhood in the Bible belt of the most affluent
nation on earth. Not much risk involved here, right?
But I don’t want to stay on this couch.
There are so many
peoples to reach, there is such an awesome God to glorify, and there is just
one life to do it in. What am I going to do with mine? What are you going to do
with yours?
“God, I pray Thee, light these idle sticks of my
life that I may burn for Thee. Consume my life, my God, for it is Thine. I seek
not a long life but a full one like You, Lord Jesus.”
– Jim Elliot
