Losing your Life

"Whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it." (Mark 8:35b)
I was reading the biography of Henry Martyn again -- this young man truly lost his life (as the world would see it) for the sake of the Gospel. He had a brilliant academic career ahead of him -- he was made a fellow in Cambridge at the age of 19 after excelling in mathematics and winning the coveted post of "Senior Wrangler" for the year. He also had a great gift for languages -- during the course of his life, he learned at least 10 different languages (from what I've been able to find) -- Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, Portuguese, Bengali, Hindustani, Persian, Arabic, and Sanskrit. But he gave up his promising future, left behind his family and friends and the woman he loved, and at the age of 25 he set out for India as a missionary. He was already suffering from tuberculosis at this point, and the disease was exacerbated by the harsh conditions and climate of the land to which he went. But he counted all these things as loss so that he might gain Christ, and serve Christ.
Just after he arrived in India, as he surveyed the work of other missionaries around him while he was still waiting for an official appointment, he wrote in his journal -- "I feel pressed in spirit to do something for God. Everybody is diligent, but I am idle . . . I have hitherto lived to little purpose, more like a clod than a servant of God; now let me burn out for God." Some debate whether the idea of "burning out for God" is not simply used as an excuse for being presumptuous and careless with your life, but I cannot help but feel that if more of us had this true desire in our hearts and put it into practice in our lives, we would see much more being done for God in our generation. We are too caught up in our comforts, in our relationships, in our own desires and ambitions. Martyn said, "Let me forget the world, and be swallowed up in a desire to glorify God."
Martyn did burn out for God. He died at the age of 31. But in the few short years that he spent in India and Persia, God accomplished so much through him! He preached the Gospel to many lost souls, opened several schools, and translated the New Testament into Hindustani, Persian, and Arabic.
I am 29. What have I done with my life thus far? More importantly, has the Lord done anything through me? Or have I been so caught up with my own plans and ambitions -- even "spiritual" ones! -- that I have been of no use? "I have hitherto lived to little purpose . . ."
Let me leave you with not the words of a man or about a man -- even such a man as Martyn -- but the words of Christ. "I must work the works of Him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work." (John 9:4)
"The brightest life on earth was one of loss;
The noblest head was wreathed with sharpest thorn.
Has He not consecrated pain -- the Cross?
What higher crown can Christian brows adorn?
Be we content to follow on the road
Which men count failure, but which leads to God!"