Dr. Kimble's Choice

I recently watched a TV show from the 1960s called The Fugitive. Dr. Richard Kimble has been convicted of a murder he did not commit so he spends his life on the run from the law. In one episode while pretending to be a field worker, he finds himself in a situation where a pregnant woman is in need of emergency surgery. Their circumstances have temporarily cut them off from other medical help and we see Kimble wrestling with this painful choice. Will he let her and the baby die? Nobody knew his true identity or ability as a doctor so no one would ever know that he could have saved them. Or will he save them? Exposing his true identity and risking getting caught and sent back to death row?

I've been thinking about the cross lately, specifically how people respond when they are faced with taking it up daily.
When you think about Jesus going to His physical cross, you see that almost everyone fled. Suddenly the crowds who had flocked Him with their needs, didn't need Him anymore when to follow meant sacrifice. The disciples who had given up their life's plans to follow Him, ran away and hid, when to follow meant death. Only a handful of people knowingly followed Him to face the reality of the cost of salvation.

Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.
Luke 9:23

If Jesus already died once for our salvation why do we need to die daily?
Because we don't die for salvation, we die for others to have the opportunity to accept that salvation.

I was thinking the other day about my eight adopted siblings and the amazing story they each have of how the Lord brought them here to our family. But what if my family hadn't of been willing to deny ourselves and die for their opportunity? What if we hadn't stepped into their fight and battled against the enemy who was out to destroy them?

Sooner than later we are all faced with the cross, not the cross of Christ, but ours. Will you take it up? Will you deny yourself and die so that someone else has the opportunity to find salvation? Will you stand in the gap and take the brunt of the blows meant to keep them from Jesus so that they can get through to Him? Will you suffer for the life of someone else?
What if you flee? What if you don't take up the cross? What will happen to you? What if that someone dies apart from Christ? What if somebody hadn't paid the price for your opportunity?

Dr. Kimble's face showed his inner anguish as he wrestled over what to do.
I have often felt this same anguish. I have died for the opportunity of others before and I know the suffering I'm again being asked to walk into. And though I can see the joy of my past suffering in the eyes of my siblings there are other times I've taken up the cross in faith, having yet to see the lives I was giving opportunity to.

Yet the greater question shouldn't be can I endure this suffering? For certainly with Christ we can do all things. The greater question is, can I stand by and let this person die when I know that I am able to give them the opportunity to be saved?

Can I stand by and let this person die?

Dr. Kimble couldn't. And you might say he's just a TV show character. But what about the person who paid the price for your opportunity. They couldn't just stand by.
Jesus couldn't. He stepped into our fight and defeated our enemy. Now He asks that we step into someone else's fight, to push back the enemy, so that they can get through to Jesus.

One day our time on this earth will come to an end and this veil of mystery will vanish away revealing what truly happened during our lifetime here. Dr. Kimble could have slipped away and no one would have ever known he was a doctor, but you can't. Someday all we did and did not do here will be made known. What will be revealed? What was your choice?