“No Story Is Worth Dying For”

I generally keep a close on eye on CNN’s website throughout the day. During my undergrad years I was in a pretty sheltered bubble of zero national and international news except what I saw on ESPN or when I walked by I newspaper stand. Since that time I’ve bookmarked a couple of news websites on both my work and personal computers in an effort to always be in the loop. Generally I focus my attention on the world news sections, as I’m more interested in 3rd problems than 1st world ones (#firstworldproblems).

Today I stumbled upon a video of CNN’s Senior International Correspondent, Nic Robertson, talking about the danger he encountered reporting on the current war in Syria. It was a compelling piece that showed dramatic footage of the front lines as the convoy he was in was caught in the middle of a gunfight. As he described the chaos and their desperate, and eventually successful, attempts to get out of harm’s way, Robertson commented that “no story is worth dying for. That quote was, in fact, the title of the video clip and the reason it caught my eye in the first place.

“No story is worth dying for.”

I certainly can appreciate where he is coming from and am in no way questioning the man’s bravery, but I have to disagree with his assessment. Jim Eliot, Nate Saint, and 3 other men gave their lives trying to share a story to a group of people they had never met and had no ties with. Adoniram Judson poured out his life to share a story with the people of Burma. The list goes on and on. Every day more men and women give their lives in an effort to share a story.

What story could be so important, so crucial, and worth dying for?

It’s a story of one man’s sacrifice on behalf of the rest of the world. It’s a story where God gives up his rights as the Creator and makes Himself human so that he could live with us and experience the same pain and hurt that we experience. It’s a story of the ultimate act of love. It’s a story that is so important that the author gave His life just to write it.

What is this story?

Simply this…

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our sins, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved – and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.”
(Ephesians 4:3-7)

If a story is not worth dying for then it cannot be worth living for.  Spend your life in search of the story that is worth dying for, because only then will you truly be able to live.