Which Are You?

Matthew 16: 24 & 27 “Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me…….For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done."

The streets of Cairo were hot and dusty as we drove into a graveyard for American missionaries. The person we were with pointed to a sun scorched tombstone that read: William Borden 1887-1913.

Borden, a Yale graduate and heir to great wealth, rejected a life of ease in order to bring the gospel to Muslims. Refusing even to buy himself a car, Borden gave away hundreds of thousands of dollars to missions. After only four months of zealous ministry in Egypt, he contracted spinal meningitis and died at the age of twenty-five. I dusted off the epitaph on Borden’s grave. After describing his love and sacrifices for the kingdom of God and for Muslim people, the inscription ended with a phrase I’ve never forgotten: “Apart from faith in Christ, there is no explanation for such a life.”

From Borden’s grave we went straight to the Egyptian National Museum. The King Tut exhibit was mind boggling. Tutankhamen, the boy king, was only seventeen when he died. He was buried with solid gold chariots and thousands of golden artifacts, his gold coffin was found within gold tombs. The burial site was filled with tons of gold.

The Egyptians believed in an afterlife— where one could take earthly treasures. But all the treasure intended for King Tut’s eternal enjoyment stayed right where they were.

I was struck by the contrast between these two graves. Borden’s was obscure, dusty, and hidden off the back alley, streets littered with garbage. Tut’s tomb glittered with unimaginable wealth. Yet where are these two young men now? One who lived in great wealth and was king himself is in the misery of a Christ-less eternity. The other, who lived a modest life on earth in service of the one true King, is enjoying his everlasting reward in the presence of His Lord.

By Randy Alcorn