Laying Down Our Life

Lately my work has been somewhat stressful as we try to meet the demands of our clients, and I have spent a lot of mental energy recently worrying about things related to work.  But as I listened to The Hiding Place in the car today, the famous true account by Corrie ten Boom of her incredible work helping Jews in occupied Holland in WWII, my own worries seemed meager compared to the challenges of that time.  Her willingness to risk her own life day after day to save the lives of countless others, resulting in her own capture and imprisonment, showed a Christlike love that is beyond anything I would be capable of.  She and her family lived this injunction of the Savior in our dispensation: “Let no man be afraid to lay down his life for my sake; for whoso layeth down his life for my sake shall find it again” (D&C 103:27).  They put their lives on the line, knowing with near certainty that they would eventually be caught, but they refused to simply let others be killed when they could do something about it.  The Savior was surely speaking of those like her when He said, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).

               The next verse in D&C 103 after the one mentioned above is one to give us great cause for reflection about our own devotion to the Lord.  The Savior said, “And whoso is not willing to lay down his life for my sake is not my disciple” (v28).  That’s a pretty high bar for those of us who claim to be His disciples—most of us have a hard enough time giving up money to pay tithing or sacrificing time to do home teaching.  One poignant scene in the book was when Corrie and her father briefly had the care of a young two-week-old Jewish baby.  They were trying to find a more permanent home and hiding place for the child and his mother, and they approached a minister about taking the baby in.  He hesitated but finally refused, saying that it was too risky for his own life to take the child in.  Corrie’s father took the baby in his arms and said he would gladly give his life for such a child.  Ultimately he did give his life for the Jews he sought to save from those so devoid of humanity.  I’m not sure how we develop that kind of love and unselfishness, but I guess it starts with the way we treat our neighbor and coworker and stranger we encounter tomorrow.  We must strive to live as John invited us to, “But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?  My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:17-18).  Hopefully we won’t be required in the future to put our physical lives on the altar like Corrie and her family, but we surely will have some opportunity tomorrow to, in some small way, lay down a piece of our life for someone else.