Remembering

Lisa entered into the den of her home.  It was on her husband’s desk that she found, on a folded piece of paper, a passage quoting Teddy Roosevelt.  It read as follows:

“The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena…who strives valiantly, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in worthy causes.  Who, at best, knows the triumph of high achievement and who, at worst, if he fails, fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

Lisa’s discovery occurred just weeks after her husband, Todd Beamer, died while aboard United Airlines Flight 93 (9/11/01).  A Newsweek reporter wrote, “The hijackers of UA 93 didn’t bank on the plane’s passengers banding together to take them on.  By charging the cockpit, these heroes prevented the plane from crashing into the nations’s capital– where it seemed to be headed.”  Todd “Let’s Roll” Beamer gave his life so that others might live.  It is true that many, many others did the same on that horrific day six years ago. 

Pause for a moment and remember.

I’m also remembering today that the greatest model of abandonment and risk remains to this day– Jesus Christ.  He stepped out of the comfort of heaven to show us the love of God.  He risked being God with skin on in the midst of religious persecution and tyrannical rule.  He risked by loving the unlovely.  He risked by charging his disciples to receive the power of the Holy Spirit and spread the gospel to all nations.  This abandonment of comfort and risk led him to a cross where he gave his life for all the world.  He gave his life so that the church might be filled with life.

Todd Beamer knew Jesus Christ as friend, Lord and Savior.  He emulated to us the greatest hero of all time– Jesus Christ.

Today, “spend yourself in a worthy cause.”  Know the “triumph of high achievement.”  “Dare greatly.”

by Rob Campbell

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