Wednesday, September 4, 2013

September 5, 2013

"My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends." John 15:12-13


What on earth are you doing?


That is the question I am exploring this week.


Have you ever considered being a world changer?


"But I'm just one person! How can I change the world?", you may be thinking.


Consider this inspiring story!


In Ernest Gordon’s true account of life in a World War II Japanese prison camp, "Through the Valley of the Kwai," there is a moving story. It is about a man who through giving it all away literally transformed his world. The man’s name was Angus McGillivray.


Angus was a Scottish prisoner in one of the camps filled with Americans, Australians, and Brits who had helped build the infamous Bridge over the River Kwai. The camp had become an ugly situation. A dog-eat-dog mentality had set in. Allies would literally steal from each other and cheat each other; men would sleep on their packs and yet have them stolen from under their heads. Survival was everything. The law of the jungle prevailed...until the news of Angus McGillivray’s death spread throughout the camp. 


Rumors spread in the wake of his death. No one could believe big Angus had succumbed. He was strong, one of those whom they had expected to be the last to die. Actually, it wasn’t the fact of his death that shocked the men, but the reason he died.


Finally they pieced together the true story. The Scottish soldiers took their buddy system very seriously. Their buddy was called their 'mucker,' and these Scots believed that is was literally up to each of them to make sure their 'mucker' survived. Angus’s mucker, though, was dying, and everyone had given up on him; everyone, of course, but Angus. He had made up his mind that his friend would not die.


Someone had stolen his mucker’s blanket. So Angus gave him his own, telling his mucker that he had 'just come across an extra one.' Likewise, every mealtime, Angus would get his rations and take them to his friend, stand over him and force him to eat them, again stating that he was able to get 'extra food.'  Angus was going to do anything and everything to see that his buddy got what he needed to recover.


But as Angus’s mucker began to recover, Angus collapsed, slumped over, and died. The doctors discovered that he had died of starvation complicated by exhaustion. He had been giving of his own food and shelter. He had given everything he had—even his very life.


The impact of his acts of love and unselfishness had an amazing effect on the compound.  As word circulated of the reason for Angus McGillivray’s death, the feel of the camp began to change. Suddenly, men began to focus on their mates, their friends, and humanity-- of living beyond survival, of giving oneself away. They began to pool their talents—one was a violinmaker, another an orchestra leader, another a cabinetmaker, another a professor. Soon the camp had an orchestra full of homemade instruments and a church called the 'Church Without Walls' that was so powerful, so compelling, that even the Japanese guards attended. The men began a university, a hospital, and a library system. The place was transformed all because one man named Angus gave all he had for his friend. His sacrificial love changed their world.



Don't underestimate the power of sacrificial love!


It was the sacrificial love of Jesus that changed your world!