The path of God-exalting joy will cost you your life. Jesus said, "Whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it." In other words, it is better to lose your life than to waste it. If you live gladly to make others glad in God, your life will be hard, your risks will be high, and your joy will be full. This is not a book about how to avoid a wounded life, but how to avoid a wasted life. Some of you will die in the service of Christ. That will not be a tragedy. Treasuring life above Christ is a tragedy.I am the youngest of 5 kids. My brother Brad is the 4th child. For the past 10 or so years he's been a chaplain in the U.S. Army. It's not a glamorous job. He doesn't get to speak to a hundreds or even dozens of happy suburbanites on Sundays. On a good Sunday he's got 10 or 20. Usually it's not more than a dozen. He's been on more than one trip to tell a family that their soldier wasn't coming home.
Twice in the last 10 years Brad has left his wife Tina and their 4 children, Samual, Mason, Wyatt and Olivia to serve the men and women of our Armed Forces in far away locations and usually in harm's way. That doesn't count the numerous times he's had to leave for 2, 3 and 4 months for training or battlefield service unannounced. As a father I can't even imagine what it would be like to miss 2-4 years of my children's lives.
As I write this Brad is serving another year in Afghanistan. If you know Brad he likes to be in the middle of the action. He would hate serving in the safety of some rear post where people fill out forms or push pens in quiet offices. He's a soldier and is called to serve Jesus among soldiers.
Today I got an email from Brad. As his biological brother, it scared me. But as his spiritual brother, it inspired me. Brad is exactly what Piper is talking about. He's not avoiding a wounded life. In his service to Christ, he's avoiding a wasted life.
Today, Brad's alarm went off. Moments later he heard a massive explosion. A suicide bomber had just driven a car laden with explosives into the place the local civilian workers line up to work on base. An announcement followed telling everyone to take cover in a hard shelter. Brad's barracks are in a hard shelter and so he waited. A few moments later the same voice told everyone that the explosion had resulted in numerous casualties and injuries and that the wounded were on their way to the base hospital. That was Brad's cue to suit up and go to the hospital for ministry. That was his cue to disregard the announcement to be safe. He had to go. This is what Christ made him for.
Brad spent the next few hours helping doctors care for the wounded, applying tourniquets and helping in any way he could. That's when the second siren sounded and another voice announced that the enemy was trying to breach the perimeter of the base. The voice told everyone to get to a hard shelter and put on their body armor. Brad eventually complied and I'm happy to say he came away without a scratch on his body.
This is what my brother does. This is what it means for him to serve Christ. He's my hero because he refuses to waste his life by treasuring life, even his own, above Christ.
We all have one life. We all were made for God. "Don't waste it."
I love you Brad.
Your admiring brother,
Chris
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