The Hard Questions
We watched a movie called Valkyrie last night. If you aren’t familiar with it, it is based on a true story about a bold assassination plot by German soldiers and civilians to kill Adolf Hitler. (And it is a good movie.) I don’t know how the real events played out or if the movie portrayed them correctly but I do know one thing about the movie that is true: each man involved was led before a firing squad and killed for his involvement in the plot. These men made a decision to stand up for what they believed even in the face of death. I am sure they hoped to succeed and not die, but I am also sure that they made a conscious decision to take the risk of dying for a cause. To take the kind of actions they did they had to know death was an option and they had to come to terms with that.
How many of us face hard questions like this today? Some days the hardest question I have to answer is what to have for dinner. For some women it may be what shade of lipstick to wear. It could be, “Do I get the 48 inch plasma or the 52 inch LCD?” I am not trying to downplay these decisions we are faced with. They are a result of the time and situations we live in. I am sure there are people out there making life and death decisions (our military for example) but I want to talk to those of us who don’t.
There is no doubt in my mind that people like me will someday have to face the hard questions again. It might be many years from now. The question is, will they be able to make them or will the cower away and take an easier, safer path in the face of certain death? Will they be able to stand up and believe in something strongly enough to be willing to die? The world needs these kind of people. People who will stand up, ready to give the ultimate sacrifice for what is right.
Dying for a good cause is one thing but I want to turn my attention to those of us who claim to be Christians. Consider the words of Christ:
Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, “This man began to build and was not able to finish.” Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So, therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
Luke 14:25-33
Would you be able to renounce your life for Christ? Many of us would immediately respond quickly with an affirmative. But when you take time to actually think about it; it gets harder.
Imagine you are kneeling in a dark alley, rocks digging into your knees. A body lies next to you, blood pooling around what used to be its head. Next to that is another person, kneeling as well, sobbing. You feel a shiver as the warm barrel of a gun, still smoking, touches the back of your head. A voice from behind mockingly asks you a simple question that has already been asked twice, “Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that he died and came back from the dead to save you from your sins? Yes or no.” The person still alive with you gave an answer of no. The dead person gave an answer of yes. Gun to the back of your head, what is your answer?
When Christ spoke the words above, following him could mean death. Most of us live in a time and place where that isn’t as true, but it could be someday. Have you thought about it? Even Peter, who had walked with Christ denied him when the going got tough. Will you? Are you still hanging on to your stuff or your life? When you are called to give them up would you? Consider the cost of following Christ.
Brian
