Worth dying for…

After a couple week break because of our trip to Juarez, it was absolutely wonderful to see our Ace Hoops boys again at Powderhorn Park on Saturday! And to make it even better, we had our largest group yet….23 boys!

This means our basketball teams have a few more substitutes, our dinner table needs a few more chairs, the family serving the meal needs to make a little more food, but ultimately and most importantly that every Saturday night, more and more boys are learning about the God who loves them.

As I have mentioned before, my relationship with these boys has challenged me in ways that I never could have imagined. Whether it be through their perseverance through adversity, their unlimited supply of energy, or their questions about God and about the Bible that always cause me to go deeper in my own faith…I am a better person because of them. And spending time with them this Saturday proved to be no less challenging to my own heart…

Over the past few months we have spent time studying one of Paul’s 13 Letters in the Bible. This week however, I wanted to go back a bit and talk about who Paul, the writer of these letters, was. We talked about Paul’s journey from being Saul, to being blinded on the road to Damascus, to being healed and filled with the Holy Spirit, to then God using him to preach and lead so many to become followers of Christ. We used Paul’s life as an example of a life completely transformed by the Gospel and the love of Christ.
We went on to talk about how Paul was beaten, arrested, stoned, whipped, and ultimately murdered for what he believed. Because of the Gospel that he so richly loved and preached, Paul was killed. When I told this part of Paul’s journey to the boys, they looked at me with complete surprise and shock. It was an idea and a concept that was foreign to their young minds…to think that there was be something out there worth dying for.

Paul found the Gospel of Jesus Christ so beautiful, so important, so valuable…that it became MORE beautiful, MORE important, and MORE valuable than his own life.
Just think about this for a second.

What do you really find worth dying for? What do you consider MOST beautiful, MOST important, and MOST valuable in your own life? Would you give up everything for it?

Then if Paul found the Gospel worth dying for, how much did he also find the Gospel worth living for?
I so often get caught up in the hustle and bustle of life, the crazy schedule I have to keep, the ever-decreasing amount of money in my bank account, the worries and stresses of tomorrow…that I forget why I am actually here. I realize I am missing something. I am here to live a life in light of this Gospel that Paul found worth dying for and to share it with everyone I can…whatever the cost. This is what matters most.

So join us. Take up the challenge I made for the boys and for myself…take this week to think about what you find worth dying for and what you are living for..because if it is anything outside of the cause of Christ, I think we are missing it completely.