Protestors in Yemen supporting Joel Shrum
Today I guess you can say I officially said goodbye to a friend. It was one of those roller coaster days of elation, mixed with sorrow, mixed with joy, mixed with many tears as we gathered together to publicly celebrate the life of my friend Joel Shrum. It was a day of struggling to find the right things to say to somehow offer comfort. I rehearsed it in my mind what I would say the first time I came face to face with the widow, hoping I might say something profound to offer comfort in the pain and anguish, yet when I saw her, I could only embrace her. In one single motion, I felt a connection to her grief, a grief that must be so deep it is almost unimaginable. It felt like such an awkward moment that would be common amongst strangers yet seems so foreign among friends. What do you say in moments like this?
These moments where mere words don’t seem to be adequate to describe the depth of emotion. As I looked in the eyes of the parents, I thought of the many ways our lives intertwined. I thought of how they mentored my wife and I in our dating relationship when we were entertaining those thoughts of marriage. The Godly example they set for us that they passed down to their children. This Godly heritage that led to a young man finding Jesus that led to an answered call, a willing life, and life of sacrifice. Sacrifice: such a heavy word yet carries with it so much. I think because I only have one Starbucks latte a week, I am somehow sacrificing something. We have come to demean this word, to lessen it’s impact to somehow make it more easier to swallow. Yet, this word implies so much more then we acknowledge. To understand it’s full impact, we need look no further then the Cross. Christ sacrificed so much to bring us back into right relationship with our Father. He sacrificed his position as he lowered himself, taking on the form of a servant as Paul reminds us in Philippians 2. Through out his ministry we see how he sacrificed meals, his reputation, popularity, and his beauty. He epitomized suffering, and we esteemed him not (Isaiah 53). Ultimately, Christ sacrificed his life in order to pay a debt he did not owe in order that we would be made right with God. Sacrifice: such a loaded word. Makes my Starbucks seem so petty in lieu of the Cross.
I have thought many times about my friend Joel. He sacrificed a comfortable living, the kind of life that provides you 2.5 kids and house in suburbia with a white picket fence, working to pay for all the toys you can buy to try to satisfy you. Joel knew there was more then this. He understood God desires more from his children and so he became a visionary. He sacrificed his time, talents, energy, family, comforts, in order to love and live among a certain people group. Ultimately, Joel would pay with his life for his sacrifice. “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).
The question is are we willing? Do we recognize the world is more then what we see right in front of us? There is a world of hundreds of cultures and people who our Father loves so much. Are our hearts open to them? Joel’s heart was. Joel’s families’ hearts are.
I remember the morning of his death, when I received the news of his murder, I was led to the third chapter of Paul’s letter to the Philippians. “7But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 10I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead”(Philippians 3:7-11). All that Paul gained in the flesh he considered rubbish for the sake of knowing Christ! Do we consider our comforts rubbish, dung, like the sewer because knowing Christ is so much more sweeter, fulfilling, edifying, and satisfying then anything else we can experience this side of heaven? My friend Joel epitomized this verse. He was willing to sacrifice all the earthly pleasures, in order to obtain heavenly treasures. Again, sacrifice comes to mind. Do we really desire to know Christ; to not just know on an intellectual level in knowing a lot of information about God, but to truly know him in order to share in his suffering. Are we willing to die for what we believe in the same way that Christ was willing to die to bring us into right relationship with him? Joel was willing.
I continually find myself asking what my limits are. I will only follow Christ as long as it benefits me, as long as I can be comfortable, enjoying all the comforts of this world, yet still worship the Lord. These are my stipulations. Don’t send me to any place too difficult. I don’t want to suffer, I want to be allowed to sit in the pew every week and not take part in any way. After all it is all about my comfort right? Sacrifice: Am I willing to give up my time, talents, energy, family, social life, reputation, career, money, home, daily meals in order that I might answer the call of my Savior? My friend Joel was willing, and he became like our Savior in death. Sacrifice, what a word, indeed. I have a feeling if I ask my friend Joel if Christ was truly worth it, he would say, he is indeed worthy of this and so much more. Am I willing?
