No one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much…and with them, persecutions. (Mark 29-30)

There are certain true heroes of the faith that most of us look upon with great admiration, yet if it came down to it, we would probably not be highly motivated to imitate them because they lived such a difficult life, and often a relatively short life. Many of the Twelve fall into that category. Adoniram Judson is a more recent example of that.

His biography was one of the first biographies I ever read as a youth. Here was a man whose suffering did not deter him from the calling God gave him for Burma (now Myanmar), a disease-ridden and hostile country between India and Thailand. So what is it about Adoniram Judson that would lead him to leave a comfortable life and choose such a life far from home and family?

Remember, true heroes are ordinary men and women who do extraordinary things to promote truth, integrity, justice, righteousness and humility for the good of others. They are committed to a greater cause beyond themselves, and they are willing to put their lives on the line for that noble cause regardless of personal cost, public sentiment or outside pressure to do otherwise. So, let me share just a small part of Judson’s life and ministry. As you read decide for yourself if he and his wife do not, in fact, describe true heroism in God’s eyes—and yours.

Shortly after surrendering his life to Christ for missionary service, Adoniram met Ann Hasseltine. A month later he declared his intention to be her suitor and wrote this letter to her father:

I have now to ask, whether you can consent to part with your daughter early next spring, to see her no more in this world whether you can consent to her departure, and her subjection to the hardships and sufferings of missionary life; whether you can consent to her exposure to the dangers of the ocean, to the fatal influence of the southern climate of India; to every kind of want and distress; to degradation, insult, persecution, and perhaps a violent death. Can you consent to all this, for the sake of him who left is heavenly home, and died for her and for you; for the sake of perishing, immortal souls; for the sake of Zion, and the glory of God? Can you consent to all this, in hope of soon meeting your daughter in the world of glory, with the crown of righteous, brightened with the acclamations of praise which shall redound to her Savior from heathens saved, through her means, from eter­nal woe and despair?15

Her father decided to let Ann decide. Making up her mind to marry Adoniram, she wrote to a friend saying, “I have…come to the determination to give up all my comforts and enjoyments here, sacrifice my affection to relatives and friends, and go where God, in his Providence, shall see fit to place me”. Now that’s heroic.

Twelve days after their marriage, the left for India where they began a life-long battle in the 108-degree heat with cholera, malaria, dysentery, and un­known miseries that would take two of Judson’s wives and seven of his 13 children, and colleague after colleague in death. An example of the commitment and heroism of these two servants of Christ is evident in one very dark period in their married life.

The British had invaded the harbor port of Rangoon, and the emperor, who hated westerners, imprisoned Adoniram as a spy for the British. Adoniram was dragged from his home and on June 8, 1824 and put in prison. His feet were fettered and at night a long horizontal bamboo pole was lowered and passed between the fettered legs and hoisted up till only the shoulder and heads of the prisoners rested on the ground.

Ann was pregnant, yet walked the two miles daily to the palace to plead that Judson was not a spy and that they should have mercy. Finally, in November of 1825, Adoniram was released because the emperor needed a translator. Both he and Ann were thin, gaunt, and sickly. Ann was so physically spent, that she would die eleven months later, and their child six months after that.

This began a very dark period of Judson’s life, but he persevered. Eight years later he would marry again and continue his work in Burma. There would be much more tragedy and suffering ahead, yet he had learned how to “hate his life in this world without bitter­ness or depression”. He had one passion: to give his life to the work of Christ in Burma. He was truly hero committed to a greater cause beyond himself, and a better prize beyond this life.

Speaking to others who were thinking of entering missionary service, Adoniram wanted them to know the cost involved:

Remember, a large proportion of those who come out on a mission to the East die within five years after leaving their native land. Walk softly, therefore; death is narrowly watching your steps.(*)

How are you, as a grandparent, preparing your grandchildren for wholehearted, unconditional service for the Kingdom? Are you the kind of hero for Christ that will show them the way and point to a greater reward?

GRANDPAUSE: The question for us is not whether we will die, but whether we will die in a way that bears much fruit. –John Piper

(*) For a short biographical overview of the life of Adoniram Judson, click here for a free download by John Piper.