Recently, Christina and I watched the movie, “The Guardian” together. It stars Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher. The movie had familiar theme with some predictable parts. But it was a great introduction to the U.S. Coast Guard. I didn’t realize all the training that they had to go though. Their motto is Semper Paratus, which means, “Always Ready.” But throughout the movie there was another underlining motto that they used – “so that others may live.”
When I saw this, God spoke to me about evangelism and sacrifice in a fresh way. It is pretty amazing to see the level of sacrifice of these men and women. They are willing to lay down their lives “so that others may live.” It reminded me of Jesus’ words in 3 occasions:
The challenging question for me was – “how much do I believe in this Gospel that I am even willing to lay down my life for it so that others may know and live?”
Christ’s disciples laid down their lives for it… the 1st century Christians laid down their lives for it… many Christians in the 20th century laid down their lives for it… and many are laying down their lives for it now.
I am praying for a fresh wind to blow in our church. We need to recapture the heart of sacrifice and the treasure of the Gospel message – it really needs to be Good News for us.
At the end of the movie, as the credits were rolling (normally, I do not watch the credits), I was still left there pondering on the correlation between the call of the Coast Guards to lay down their lives to save people and the call of the Christian to lay down their lives to preach the Gospel. Then a song started to play along with the credits. The words of the song stirred my heart that I googled it.
Here are the lyrics to Bryan Adams’ song, “Never Let Go,”
Can you take what you need, but take less than you give?
Could you close every day, without the glory and fame?
Could you hold your head high, when no-one knows your name?
That’s how legends are made, at least that’s what they say.
We say goodbye, but never let go.
We live, we die, ‘coz you can’t save every soul.
Gotta take every chance to, show that you’re the kinda man who;
Will never look back, never look down, and never let go.
Can you lose everything, you ever had planned?
Can you sit down again, and play another hand?
Could you risk everything, for the chance of being alone?
Under pressure find the grace, or would you come undone?
That’s how legends are made, at least that’s what they say?
We say goodbye, but never let go.
We live, we die, ‘coz you can’t save every soul.
Gotta take every chance to, show that you’re the kinda man who;
Will never look back, never look down, and never let go.
You can listen to the song here on his myspace.com