"For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all,
so that I may win more."
"I do all things for the sake of the gospel…"

Paul – 1 Corinthians 9:19, 23

In John White's book Magnificent Obsession he records part of an actual letter written by an American communist living in Mexico City. He's writing to break up with his fiancée for the sake of his commitment to communism. Here's a portion of that letter:

"We communists suffer many casualties. We are those whom they shoot, hang, lynch, tar and feather, imprison, slander, fire from our jobs and whose lives people make miserable in every way possible. Some of us are killed and imprisoned. We live in poverty. From what we earn we turn over to the Party every cent which we do not absolutely need to live.

We communists have neither time nor money to go to movies very often, nor for concerts, nor for beautiful homes and new cars. They call us fanatics. We are fanatics. Our lives are dominated by one supreme factor – the struggle for world communism. We communists have a philosophy of life that money could not buy.

We have a cause to fight for, a specific goal in life. We lose our insignificant identities in the great river of humanity; and if our personal lives seem hard or if our egos seem bruised through subordination to the Party, we are amply rewarded in the thought that all of us, even though it be in a very small way, are contributing something new and better for humanity.

There is one thing about which I am completely in earnest – the communist cause. It is my life, my business, my religion, my hobby, my sweetheart, my wife, my mistress, my meat and drink. I work at it by day and dream of it by night. Its control over me grows greater with the passage of time. Therefore I cannot have a friend, a lover or even a conversation without relating them to this power that animates and controls my life. I measure people, books, ideas, and deeds according to the way they affect the communist cause and by their attitude to it. I have already been in jail for my ideas, and if need be I am ready to face death."

"Father please do in us whatever you must so that we would have the same level of sacrifice and commitment to the cause of Jesus and then some. Please rid us of anything that would be a distraction in being fully devoted to You all the days of our lives. Please work in us so that we would love You and love people like You love us. You are so gracious, so kind, so patient, so loving; thank You Father!! Thank You God! In Jesus all powerful Name. Amen."

His Kingdom Come,
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