A martyr's faith...

I went to church this weekend expecting to be taught - instead I was stunned. There was a young woman getting baptized named Allam, a seventeen-year old foreign exchange from Tunisia. Tunisia is a Muslim country. Allam knows that when she returns to her family in May, she will at least be ostracized from her family, and it is very likely she will be sexually assaulted and killed for her conversion. In other words, she converted to Christianity knowing full well it means near-certain death. She was smiling as she was telling us this, and said that not only was she returning to her home country, she was going to spread the gospel as much as she can when she returns. She knows that returning to Tunisia will result in her losing her family, any hopes of a prosperous future and most likely her life. She has a martyr's faith.

Needless to say, this got me thinking: do I have that kind of faith? Do I have that level of commitment to my Savior? He died for me, am I willing to die for Him? My initial reaction is a strong "Of course I am! Bring it on!" but upon further soul-searching I realized that I am holding myself back. My selfish desires tell me that suffering for my faith is counter-productive, how can I serve Christ in jail or dead? The answer is obvious and we see it throughout Scripture: the Christian message gets louder once the martyr goes to the grave. It's not about me, it's about the Message I'm preaching.