Sacrifice?

A while back one of my employees worked on some key art for the film "End of the Spear".I had heard of the story before because Elizabeth Elliot (a woman who is the was a part of the story that the film was based on) used to come to Central and talk to the youth group. Elizabeth's husband, along with 3 other men, were killed by a couple of very, very remote natives during the first attempt to establish contact with the tribe as missionaries. The wives then travel to the tribe and succeed in not only establishing contact and spreading God's Message, but becoming so incredibly close with the people whol killed their husbands. It's a remarkable story and one that has stuck with me over the years.

One line that caught me in the movie, and one that remember reading in one of Elliot's books was when the son of Steve Saint (a fellow missionary), concerned for his father's safety, asked his father if they were taking guns. He said they were. But they wouldn't use them on the tribal people. After his sone tearfully asked him why, Steve said "Because we're ready to go to heaven, but they are not."

Flash forward to today, and that line has been in my head a while. I struggle with being a Christian in America. I struggle to find a way to truly implement what Christ did. And I struggle with joining in with those who simply speak, and gripe, and fuss, but don't - ever - act as Christ did. What does this line mean today? It's obviously THE Christ-like attitude of self-sacrifice, But as we engage in War as a country, would we give up our lives so that our ENEMY could be free? Not free from the State, but free unto Christ? Would we sacrifice justice, and transcend our sense of who's right and wrong, on the off-chance that one person in Iran, or Afghanistan, or Iraq would come to Christ by our willingness to lay ourselves down? What would that look like? It's backwards. Christ is always backwards, upsidedown, not what you think.

A pit forms in my stomach when I picture myself in those missionaries shoes. They undoubtedly made the right decision. They decidedly "considered others better than themselves", and sacrificed their lives so that others may live in eternity. Sound familiar? So why does that kind of obediance and sacrifice scare me? Why does that pit rise? Would I make that sacrifice? Probably not. I'm a coward. I should though. And I envy those that achieve that completeness in the sacrificial message of Christ.

Do I, as an American, ever TRULY sacrifice? Never. Do you? Think about it.