One Life~You Matter

Sunday is our second Missio Lux Celebration that we hold one time per month, instead of a weekly worship service so we can free up our resources: time, finances and energy to love and serve the world in relationship with God and each another.

Our theme Sunday is "You Matter."
We are going to be telling stories of people whose lives matter. Come and join us and hear how God lets us know we matter in such extraodinary, surprising ways.

So, with "You Matter" on my radar screen, tonight I read a story of a 13 year old girl who made her life matter, even as she was confronted with death.

Karen Zacharias tells this story in her engaging book, "Where's Your Jesus Now?. . . examining how fear erodes our faith.

October 2006: the shooting rampage of the Amish schoolgirls. 10 of them, bound together by their feet for execution. If there was ever a time for fear, this was it! But, the oldest girl, Marian Fisher, only 13 years old, asked her killer to shoot her first. She did this in an attempt to save the lives of the other girls.

Think about this. She had the presence to care about the community around her before she cared about her own life. She made her life matter by literally standing in front of a bullet.

Do you ever wonder how you would respond?
When I was a small child, I used to think about how I would respond if men with guns burst into our church and went around the room asking if we were Christians.

What would I say?
Would I have the courage to say yes, knowing I would be shot?
I still think about it and wonder, "Would I have the courage to say yes?"

Marian Fisher, only 13 years old, had the courage. She knew life on a different plane than many of our American teens--one that knew that life often comes through dying.

Hmmm, someone said that before, who was that again? Oh yes, it's Jesus. He's the one who teaches us how to live well, so that one day we can know that our life matters. We matter. . . to him. . . to one another. . .to the world.