Several months ago I finished Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell, a read I highly recommend. In 2005 Marcus led a four man team on a mission to locate a Tali-ban commander. They took up an observation post overlooking the village where intelligence said he should be. They were discovered by three goat herders and the team debated killing them. Instead, they let them go,not wanting to commit atrocities like the men they were hunting. Turns out the Afghani herders ratted them out, and 200 Tali-ban fighters came to kill them. Marcus alone survived.
There are many exciting details, but this one stood out above the others. While they were literally fighting for their lives, one member of the team had a cell phone. They were pinned down against a rocky hill, and the cell didn't have a signal. The team member, Michael Murphy, leaves the safety of the hillside, sits on a rock while under fire and makes the call for backup. He takes a bullet in the back which comes out his chest. Murphy then thanks the officer he spoke with, ends the call and keeps fighting with a fatal wound until he dies. Wow.
US Navy Seals are among the highest (some would argue THE highest) trained warriors in the world. But every one of them knows the goal of their training: to make them fit to fight and possibly die to defend their country.
I'm currently reading several books by Christian authors about personal growth. It is good stuff, and most of it echoes a lot of principles from the business world. For example, the concept of promoting your "brand" (i.e., developing, defining and presenting yourself) is pushed heavily. And I would agree with it as far as it goes. But one thing about branding, self-promotion and even self-improvement bothers me. Namely, that it focuses your attention squarely on yourself.
Question: when Jesus asks you to take a bullet, and believe me he will, does the branding mindset prepare you for that kind of self-sacrifice? When Jesus asks you to sacrifice a lucrative career, a successful ministry or your very life, does this mentality prepare you to do that? I've seen people make a momentous decision that changed their lives forever. They sacrificed successful pursuits in order to give their lives to something beyond themselves. Others I know live lives of day-by-day self-sacrifice, out of the spot light, in order to serve the "least of these".
Do I trust Jesus that much, trusting him with my life, career, reputation, future or even my very existence? Would I take a bullet for him? I hope to God I would say yes. "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends" John 15:13.
