1 Thing to Do Before You’re 29

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. 

1.  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.” 

– Brother Andrew

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