Finding Life By Giving Our Lives

Recently I have been reading a biography of a young pastor who lived in Germany during the 1930s and 1940s named Dietrich Bonhoeffer. His life has been very inspiring to me as a young pastor. He had an initimate relationship with Jesus Christ, and prophetically led others to live radically for the sake of advancing the kingdom of God. He lived during evil times, and he spoke out against the rise of the Nazis and great evil that was all around him in the world. With everything in him he worked to lead all Christians to authentically live out the gospel of Jesus Christ in a world that was breaking down all around them. Sadly, many of the "Christians" in Germany gave up the gospel in exchange for comforts and embracing the worldy values that were all around them. Bonhoeffer spoke out for justice and called for Christians to live radically in an evil world until he was martyred for his faith by the Nazis in 1945. His faith in Jesus cost him his life, but I can't even imagine what he gained for eternity in a life well-lived for the Lord.

I think that I am so interested in Bonhoeffer, and many others have become intrigued by his life since the biography by Eric Metaxas came out, because a life that is truly, radically lived for the cause of Christ sends out a profound statement to the world that is in desperate need of hope. In my heart of hearts, I am hoping to live a Christian life that is somehow like Bonhoeffer's life. I don't have a death wish, but I know that radically living out the gospel of Jesus Christ often comes with a great cost. My goal is to spend myself on behalf of Christ throughout the course of my short lifetime. There is profound evil in this world, and a radical response is needed by Christians in order to bring light into darkness. That kind of life is impossible to live if we also try to embrace the modern comforts of this world. I think it would be very hard for a person to claim a bunch of wealth and comforts for themselves and live out the radical gospel of Jesus Christ at the same time. I didn't see Jesus or the disciples model how to save up a bunch of money to retire on comfortably. I didn't see the early church moving to "safe" neighborhoods so that they could distance themselves from people in need. Just like Jesus, and just like the disciples, just like the early church who experienced tremendous persecution, just like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and just like millions of Christians throughout the world today who experience suffering and persecution, the radical message of the gospel of Jesus Christ advances when we give up absolutely everything for the sake of God.

As I look back over the past six or seven years, I am thankful for everything that God has taken me through in a world that desperately needs to experience the love of Christ. God has given me the great privilege of spreading the gospel of Jesus with haves and have nots. I've had the opportunity to spend time with business leaders that God is working through in amazing ways to accomplish his purposes. I've had the amazing opportunity to minister to prostitutes, addicts, and homeless people in my own city and in cities around the world. God has given me the privilege to be able to share the gospel with murderers and gang members in Honduras, with a drug cartel in central America, with people living in the slums of Mexico City, and with people trying to navigate through the immense pain of loss following violence in my own urban neighborhood in Pittsburgh. God has often called me to enter into the pain of people's poverty... both physical and spiritual. That is a calling that I never take lightly.

This life on earth is short, whether I lose my life today or many years from now when I am an old man. I live in relative comfort compared to the majority of Christians in the world who experience the grinds of poverty on a daily basis, but I know that God has given me this life in this particular place for such a time as this. I hope that God gives me the strength to live the rest of my life out on the edge, going to dangerous places that he calls me to go, for the sake of advancing the kingdom of God. It would be a great privilege to live radically for the sake of Christ, to sacrifice all for the sake of gaining all through God. "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything." - 1 John 3:16-20