For what are you willing to die?

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once stated that any man who does not have something for which he is willing to die is not fit to live. On face value it comes across as a rather provocative statement, but on closer observation, it is perhaps more so.  Think about it.

Ask yourself, for what are you willing to die? Paul, in his letter to the Christians in Rome, said “…scarcely for a righteous man will one die: peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.”  We couple that with the example of the Japanese fighter pilots that committed themselves to death in the attack on Pearl Harbor; and even the contemporary example of the jihadist that crashed planes on 9-11 and explode bombs in public markets around the world.

However, the question remains, For what are you willing to die? 

As a writer, I explore many concepts and ideas as a regular course of thinking, but when pressed to ask myself what reaches that highest point of self-sacrifice, I too am brought up short and forced to examine what I hold most sacred. Of course, I say like most of my readers, I would die for my wife and children, my mother and siblings, but for the most part these are unasked…or at least un-required offerings. What becomes a more pertinent question, and what I believe to be at the core of Dr. King’s question, rather is, For what am I willing to live? 

What is it that gives your life purpose and cause? What identifies you and will long after you have passed off the scene call to remembrance that you were even here? So my challenge to you is not that you die valiantly, but rather that you live on purpose and with cause. Live each day in such a way that those around you are made better, and in spite of hard times experienced, joy will be the lingering fragrance of your time shared. 

For what do you have to live? Think about it.