After a Word from Our Spokesman...
If you're a fan of his, please excuse my boldness in the following. You may find it a bit presumptuous, but I don't. The 1st time I heard him, I thought that he'd make the perfect spokesman for DW. It was like he was reading my mind. After reading his book 'don't waste your life', I'm almost sure that he is. His name is John Piper & here's an excert:
When you go home
Tell them for us and say
For your tomorrow
We gave our today
I am deeply moved by the courage and carnage on Iwo Jima. As I read the pages of this history, everything in me cries out, "O Lord, don't let me waste my life!" Let me come to the end--whether soon or late--and be able to say to a family, a church, a city, and the unreached peoples of the earth, "For your tomorrow, I gave my today. Not just for your tomorrow on earth, but for the countless tomorrows of your ever-increasing gladness in God." The closer I looked at the individual soldiers in this World War II history, the more I felt a passion that my life would count, and that I would be able to die well.
As rainy morning wore into afternoon and the fighting bogged down, the Marines continue to take casualties. Often it was the corpsmen [medics] themselves who died as they tried to preserve life. William Hoopes of Chattanooga was crouching beside a medic named Kelly, who put his head above a protective ridge and placed binoculars to his eyes--just for an instant--to spot a sniper who was peppering his area. In that instant the sniper shot him through the Adam's apple. Hoopes, a pharmacist's mate himself, struggled frantically to save his friend. "I took my forceps and reached into his neck to grasp the artery and pinch it off," Hoopes recalled. "His blood was spurting. He had no speech but his eyes were on me. He knew I was trying to save his life. I tried everything in the world. I couldn't do it. I tried. The blood was so slippery. I couldn't get the artery. I was trying so hard. And all the while he just looked at me. He looked at me. He looked directly into my face. The last thing he did as the blood spurts became less and less was to pat me on the arm as if to say, 'That's all right.' Then he died."
In this heart-breaking moment I want to be Hoopes and I want to be Kelly. I want to be able to say to suffering and perishing people, "I tried everything in the world...I was trying so hard." And I want to be able to say to those around me when I die, "It's all right. To live is Christ, and to die is gain."
Thanks John...the checks in the mail.
When you go home
Tell them for us and say
For your tomorrow
We gave our today
I am deeply moved by the courage and carnage on Iwo Jima. As I read the pages of this history, everything in me cries out, "O Lord, don't let me waste my life!" Let me come to the end--whether soon or late--and be able to say to a family, a church, a city, and the unreached peoples of the earth, "For your tomorrow, I gave my today. Not just for your tomorrow on earth, but for the countless tomorrows of your ever-increasing gladness in God." The closer I looked at the individual soldiers in this World War II history, the more I felt a passion that my life would count, and that I would be able to die well.
As rainy morning wore into afternoon and the fighting bogged down, the Marines continue to take casualties. Often it was the corpsmen [medics] themselves who died as they tried to preserve life. William Hoopes of Chattanooga was crouching beside a medic named Kelly, who put his head above a protective ridge and placed binoculars to his eyes--just for an instant--to spot a sniper who was peppering his area. In that instant the sniper shot him through the Adam's apple. Hoopes, a pharmacist's mate himself, struggled frantically to save his friend. "I took my forceps and reached into his neck to grasp the artery and pinch it off," Hoopes recalled. "His blood was spurting. He had no speech but his eyes were on me. He knew I was trying to save his life. I tried everything in the world. I couldn't do it. I tried. The blood was so slippery. I couldn't get the artery. I was trying so hard. And all the while he just looked at me. He looked at me. He looked directly into my face. The last thing he did as the blood spurts became less and less was to pat me on the arm as if to say, 'That's all right.' Then he died."
In this heart-breaking moment I want to be Hoopes and I want to be Kelly. I want to be able to say to suffering and perishing people, "I tried everything in the world...I was trying so hard." And I want to be able to say to those around me when I die, "It's all right. To live is Christ, and to die is gain."
Thanks John...the checks in the mail.
posted by lee at 10:01 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home