Life Worth Living
I was reminded by the wife of one of Rivers of the World’s (ROW) trustees that there are some things in life certainly worth dying for. However, I realized too that there are far more reasons in this life for us to live.
ROW’s trustee, Rick Justice, and his wife, Rose, live on a farm in Meridian, Miss. They have a pet pekingese dog named Snuffy and a pot bellied pig named Hogburt. Both live inside their home on the farm. Also part of their home is Miss Annie, who helps look after the house. Up in the barn is Cleve, who looks after the farm. In the barn is also a 200-pound bullmastiff dog named Babe.
On a particularly cold January morning, Rose was all dressed and ready for the day. She had planned to drive into town, but first had to let the little pig outside to take care of its business. Hogburt is outside and little does Rose know that Cleve has let Babe out of the barn. This 200lb bullmastiff spots the little bitty pig and thinks one thing, “lunch.”
Babe dashes off after Hogburt and grabs the pig and starts shaking him in his mouth. As soon as the pig starts screaming, Rose runs out of the house and starts yelling at Babe to drop the pig, which he does. However, the terrified little pig runs and jumps in the lake and begins swimming away. Cleve comes running down from the barn and Rose shouts at him, “Cleve, swim out there and save my pig.”
As Cleve begins unbuttoning his shirt on this cold winter day, Snuffy, the little pekingese sees an opportunity of a lifetime. She cannot stand that great big bullmastiff and she dashes out of the house, runs up behind Babe and promptly jumps in the air and grabs that great big dog. Babe is now screaming, running in circles trying to shake off this little pekingese. All the while, Hogburt the pig is continuing to swim away.
As Cleve continues to slowly unbutton his shirt, Rose shouts, “Cleve, swim out there and save my pig!” Cleve confesses, “Rose, I would be glad to but I can’t swim.” Now, take a moment to picture the next scene. Rose, the wife of a Presbyterian elder, is all dressed up for town on a cold January morning. Without skipping a beat, she jumps in the lake and starts swimming to save her pig.
She recalled how capturing that little pig was not as easy as she thought it would be. She would grab that pig and throw him and he thought it was a game and would swim back to her. This played over and over. She would grab the pig, throw him and he would swim back to her. Finally, she was able to pitch Hogburt up out of the lake and she immediately collapsed on the side of the lake like a beached whale.
After telling me this hilarious story, Rose looked at me and said, “Mathes, I guess there are just some things worth dying for.” As much as I laughed at her story, I couldn’t help but agree with her. There are some things in life worth dying for, but, there are a whole lot of things in life worth living for as well.
Paul said it best in Philippians 3:12-14:
“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
Today, choose to leave the past behind and move forward, fully embracing the wonderful life Christ Jesus has given you, a life that is surely worth living.
Cute story! If you think on it, what we would die for are also the things we most live for … like our loved ones, even the pets!
Karen,
You are so very right…the things we spend so much of our time living for are often those very same things that we would indeed give our lives for. I pray that we would even consider giving our very lives for the sake of the Gospel, after all, Jesus gave His life for us.
Blessings, KClack