A Life Worth Saving

Robert Cargill says that the late Bishop Bruce Baxter once told the story of a small boy whom a stranger rescued from drowning. After artificial respiration had brought the boy back to consciousness, he looked into the face of the man who had saved him from a watery grave, and said, “Thank you sir, for saving my life!” To which the man replied, “That’s all right, son, glad to do it. But see to it that you’re worth saving!” With that the stranger walked away. The boy never forgot those words. For the rest of his life the admonition of the stranger rang in his mind and heart. “That’s all right, son, glad to do it. But see to it that you’re worth saving!” That boy was Bishop Baxter himself. 

We too could say, “Thank You Lord for saving my soul.” And He could reply, “That’s all right, my child, glad to do it. But see to it that you are worth saving!”  Christ went to incredible lengths to save us from drowning in our sins. Some of us were going down for the third time. But He reached down His nailed scarred hand and plucked us out of the depths. Let’s make our life, for His sake, worth saving.  Let us not waste it, fritter it away on things that will count for nothing in eternity. Only one life will soon be passed, only what’s done for Christ will last. 

In the words of the Frances Ridley Havergal, the hymn writer, “Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord to Thee; take my moments and my days, let them flow in ceaseless praise….Take my silver and my gold; not a mite will I withhold…” Paul was fully determined to make his life for Christ worth saving.  11Tim.4:7 “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness…” Phil.3:13-14 “…. forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

There is no telling what God can do with a man or woman who is fully committed to make their life count for Him. William Carey was a shoe repairer, he became a world-famous missionary. D.L. Moody was a shoe salesman, he became in his day, America’s greatest evangelist. Smith Wigglesworth was a plumber, he became a great man of  faith who raised the dead. Gypsy Smith was an illiterate gypsy, who ended up preaching to Royalty. Amy Carmichael from Millise, Co.Down went to India and began a work among children whose parents were offering them to Temple gods. These children were terribly abused and Amy set about to rescue them. In 1927 she raised up the Duhnavur Fellowship and she became known as Amma (Mother) She rescued countless children and that work still goes on to this day. Truly, she was a life worth saving. 

- Pastor David Goudy