everything in the world

chiseled outside the cemetery at iwo jima: 


when you go home
tell them for us and say
for your tomorrow
we gave our today


"i am deeply moved by the courage and carnage on iwo jima. as i read the pages of this history, everything in me cries out, "oh Lord, don't let me waste my life!" let me come to the end - whether soon or late - and be able to say to a family, a church, a city, and the unreached peoples of the earth, "for your tomorrow, i gave my today. not just for your tomorrow on earth, but for the countless tomorrows of your ever-increasing gladness in God." 


from a corpsman struggling to save the life of his friend we have this moving account:


i took my forceps and reached into his neck to grasp the artery and pinch it off. his blood was spurting. he had no speech but his eyes were on me. he knew i was trying to save his life. i tried everything in the world. i couldn't do it. i tried. the blood was so slippery. i couldn't get the artery. i was trying so hard. and all the while he just looked at me. he looked directly into my face. the last thing he did as the blood spurts became less and less was to pat me on the arm as if to say, "that's all right." then he died.


in this heart-breaking moment i want to be...(both men.) i want to be able to say to suffering and perishing people, "i tried everything in the world...i was trying so hard." and i want to be able to say to those around me when i die, " it's all right. to live is Christ, and to die is gain." "


~don't waste your life by john piper