HAPPY TO DIE A FOOL
WHEN LIFE IS CHRIST AND DEATH IS GAIN
READ THE BOOK // ORIGINAL TITLE FROM FAI
“Our willingness to sacrifice for an enterprise is always in proportion to our faith in that enterprise.” Samuel Zwemer’s words from over a century ago gently challenge us to an honest evaluation of our priorities and pursuits. Jesus has a claim on all nations, and an inheritance represented by every ethnolinguistic people group. If we have faith in this “enterprise,” what many call the “Great Commission,” we will give ourselves to it accordingly, even if it makes us what the apostle Paul called “fools for Christ.”
And if we don’t, we won’t.
November 2018 exposed our confidence in the supremacy of Jesus and our willingness to obey Him at any cost—for better or worse. Much like Mary of Bethany’s extravagant, even reckless, pursuit of Jesus’ worth subjected her to scorn and condemnation from the future apostolic leaders of the early church, so too the death of a young man on North Sentinel Island was a “Mary of Bethany” moment for the church worldwide. What did our reaction illuminate? Happy to Die a Fool evaluates the worth of Jesus, His inheritance in the nations, and the dignity of duty for the most privileged people in the world: those who have already called upon the only name under Heaven by which we can be saved from this present evil age. May we never dare to white-knuckle the name of Jesus or His Gospel of the Kingdom for ourselves, even if it means the world will call us fools.