To Stay and Fight
Cpl. Ray Sadoski was a rifleman with the 1st Ranger Battalion during the fight for Sicily. At one point he was guarding a group of Italian prisoners near Messina. One of the prisoners who spoke English said to him, “ Hey, how about this we’re going to the States, and you’re going to stay here and fight.”219
None of us would want to be a prisoner of war, but the irony of this little quip makes us stop and think. Who gets the better deal the “captive” sent to safety, or the “free man” who has to go on facing hardship and danger? If we could choose, it might be a difficult choice.
There is a parallel here to our view of dying. None of us wants to die. We are programmed instinctively to survive, no matter the circumstance. The thought of our own death is bad enough, but the loss of a loved one is the greatest tragedy that we can imagine. But, here again, we can ask the question, “ Who gets the better deal?” As Christians, we know where we are going after we die, and we know that a new and better life awaits us there. Is it better to “stay here and fight” or to go to that glorious place where we will be with our Savior?
The apostle Paul wrestled with this question regarding his own life and ministry and described it for us in one of the most eloquent passages in Scripture:
I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.
—Philippians 1:20–24